50 CARNOT. 



vance from the Moselle to the Rhine ; whilst he was 

 accumulating formidable means of resistance on the lat- 

 ter river, Carnot, without troubling himself about old 

 theories, detached unawares 40,000 men from the army 

 of the Moselle, and sent them to the Meuse by forced 

 marches. Such was the celebrated manosuvre which 

 decided the success of the campaign of 1793, during which 

 the Austrian and Dutch generals had the double chagrin 

 of being constantly beaten, and this against all rules. Yes, 

 Gentlemen, the national tribune was but just, on the day 

 when it echoed these noble words, which have now 

 become historical : " Carnot has organized victory." 



CARNOT ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE AT WATTIGNIES. 



It might be said of the French armies, as of certain 

 painters, that they have had various styles. On the day 

 of battle, it is true, the imperial armies and the repub- 

 lican armies precipitated themselves on the enemy with 

 the same intrepidity ; with this exception all else was 

 different. The imperial soldier saw his country only in 

 the ARMY ; it was for the honour, for the glory of the 

 army, that he shed his blood at Wagram, at Sommo- 

 Sierra, at the Moscowa. The republican soldier fought 

 for his COUNTRY ; the national independence was the 

 thought that, above all others, animated him in the com- 

 bat ; as to recompenses, he did not even dream of them. 



Follow those same soldiers into private life, and you will 

 see this dissimilitude continue. The imperialist remains 

 a soldier both in his sentiments and in his manners ; the 

 republican, confounded in the mass of the population, 

 becomes soon undistinguishable from an artisan, from a 

 labourer, who had never quitted his workshop or his 

 plough. 



