COUNCIL OF THE ELDERS. 55 
where that victory abandoned the standards of the Repub- 
lic, and reverses succeeded each other, as triumphs did 
before ; all the springs were unbent, mistrust and dis- 
couragement took possession of every mind; and you 
will then understand, better than by an uninterrupted 
series of brilliant successes, of what importance the 
genius of one man alone may be to the destiny of na- 
tions. 
Carnot was called to the legislature which succeeded 
to the National Convention by fourteen departments. If 
I were allowed to express a personal sentiment, I would 
say how pleased I have been to find the name of the de- 
partment of the Eastern Pyrenees, in the list of those 
which tried to reward our great citizen for the outrages 
that a handful of members, excited by the butcher Le- 
gendre, cast upon him on several occasions. A short 
time after he entered the Council of the Elders, Carnot, 
on the refusal of Sieyés, became one of the five members 
of the Executive Directory. . 
At the moment when he for the second time was thus 
called to direct our armies, the Republic had reached the 
verge of an abyss. The public treasury was empty. The 
Directory had great trouble even in procuring clerks and 
servants in their office, so much was it thought to be in- 
solvent. The despatching of a courier was often delayed 
on account of the impossibility of providing for the ex- 
penses of the journey; the generals themselves no longer 
received the eight francs (I AM NOT MISTAKEN), the 
eight francs per month “en numéraire,” (in cash,) that 
had been granted to them, as a supplement to their pay. 
in assignats; the agricultural producers no longer sup- 
plied the markets ; the manufacturers refused to sell their 
products, because there was a right to pay for them in 
