BATTLE OF AVATTIGNIES. 51 



It is these shades, cleverly seized, artistically repro- 

 duced, that from the first day struck the public with such 

 a lively admiration for the productions of David. One 

 day, an officer of the Empire, known for his brilliant 

 valour, said to me in the library of the Institute, " I 

 cannot reconcile myself to seeing General Carnot in a 

 man dressed in short breeches and blue stockings." I 

 took the opposite view ; upon which he added, " Well, 

 be it so ! blue stockings may suit a general who was 

 never baptized by fire ! ' Yesterday, also, with less 

 roughness it is true, in word, one of our co-academicians 

 reproduced in my presence the same thought. I shall 

 then fulfil a duty by proving that, when occasion required, 

 the man in blue stockings knew 7 well how to risk his life. 



The Prince of Cobourg, at the head of sixty thousand 

 men, occupied all the outlets of the forest of Mormale, 

 and blockaded Maubeuge. This town once taken, the 

 Austrians would have met with no more serious obstacles 

 to their reaching Paris. Carnot perceives the danger ; 

 he persuades his colleagues in the Committee of Public 

 Safety that our army, notwithstanding its numerical infe- 

 riority, can give battle ; that it must attack the enemy in 

 its apparently impregnable positions. It was one of those 

 critical moments that decide the fate, the existence of 

 nations. General Jourdan hesitates under such a terrible 

 responsibility. Carnot goes to the army ; in a few hours 

 all is arranged, all is agreed upon ; the troops open out, 

 they fall upon their enemies ; but the latter are so numer- 

 ous, they occupy so well chosen a position, they have dug 

 so many entrenchments, they have furnished them so for- 

 midably with artillery, that success is uncertain. At the 

 close of the day, our right wing had gained some ground ; 

 but the left wdng had perhaps lost more. It had more- 



