HIS POLITICAL AND PRIVATE LIFE. 105 



The member of the Committee of Public Safety, who, 

 in 1793, organized the fourteen armies of the Republic, 

 who arranged all their movements, who named and 

 appointed generals, who, at need, as at Wattignies, de- 

 graded them during the battle under the enemy's can- 

 non, was only a Captain of Engineers. 



And later, when the Council of the Five Hundred, 

 and the Council of the Elders of the Republic of the 

 year III., unanimously called Carnot to the Executive 

 Directory ; when having again become the supreme 

 arbiter of our military operations, he sent Hoche to 

 la Vendee, Jourdan to the Mense, and Moreau to the 

 Rhine, instead of Pichegru ; when, by the most fortu- 

 nate inspiration, he confided the command of the army 

 of Italy to Bonaparte, our colleague gained a step, but 

 only one step ; he had become chef de bataillon by 

 seniority ! 



Carnot still held only this humble rank, when the 

 coup d'etat of the 18th Fructidor banished him from 

 France. 



The extremely hierarchical ideas of the First Consul 

 could never have reconciled themselves "to a mere chef 

 de bataillon being Minister of War. Wherefore in the 

 year IX., he did not elevate Carnot to that eminent post 

 until after he had named him Inspector General of 

 Reviews. Still, it was only turning the obstacle aside, 

 instead of removing it. The semi-military, semi-civil, 

 grade of Inspector General of Reviews, did not prevent 

 the Minister of War, under the government of the Con- 

 suls, from being a simple chef de bataillon in the Corps 

 of Engineers. 



Carnot quitted the Ministry the 16th Vendemiaire, 

 year IX. Twelve days after, his successor asked for the 



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