40 CARNOT. 



reserve. All at once a report was spread at Paris, that 

 the bread of those volunteers had been poisoned, that 

 some monsters had mixed pounded glass with all the 

 flour furnished to them, that two hundred soldiers had 

 died already, and the hospitals were overflowing with 

 sick men. The exasperation of the Parisian populace 

 rose to its highest pitch : the depot at Soissons was 

 formed against the royal will ; the crime then must be 

 imputed to the King, to the Queen, to all their adherents. 

 Before acting, they only awaited the report of the com- 

 missary who had been sent to the camp. This commis- 

 sary was Carnot. His truthful examination reduced all 

 this phantasmagoria to nothing : there were no men dead : 

 there were no men sick : the flour was not poisoned ; 

 but some panes of glass, broken by the wind, or by the 

 ball of some recruit, had fallen from the window of an 

 old church, and happened (not pulverized, but in large 

 pieces,) to lie on one single bag of flour. The upright 

 testimony of the honest man calmed the popular tem- 

 pest. 



He was not a party-man (understood of course in its 

 unfavourable meaning) ; but one who, often charged 

 with important missions to the armies and to the interior, 

 fulfilled his duties with such moderation, that he could 

 safely, when circumstances required it, without fear of 

 being contradicted, publicly render to himself the testi- 

 mony of never having caused the arrest of any one. By 

 searching into the offices of the Committee of Safety, 

 we should there find equally clear proofs of the benevo- 

 lent indulgence of Carnot towards persons professing 

 different political opinions from his, provided always 

 that they were united to honest dealing, and a warm 

 antipathy to the intervention of foreigners in the internal 



