106 CARNOT. 
illustrious citizen’s name to be inserted in the list about 
to be formed of the Generals of Division of the French 
army. The Report recalled in appropriate terms, and 
even with a degree of vivacity, all that our colleague had 
done for the national glory and independence. The 
Minister went, even in the name of justice, of esteem and 
of friendship, to invoke the magnanimity of the Consuls ; 
the magnanimity was at fault; they did not answer the 
Report, and the dismissed Minister remained in his old 
rank. 
When it was requisite, in 1814, to send orders to the 
new Governor of Antwerp, the clerks of the War-oflice, 
in order to write the address, sought for the official titles 
of Carnot in the Army-list, and were astounded at seeing 
that the Emperor had, without considering it, placed a 
chef de bataillon at the head of a crowd of old generals. 
The service would evidently have suffered from such a 
state of things; the necessity of remedying it was at 
once felt, and, in imitation of a certain ecclesiastical per- 
sonage, who in the same day received the minor orders, 
the major orders, priesthood, and episcopacy, our col- 
league, in a few minutes, passed through the various 
grades of lieutenant-colonel, colonel, brigadier-general, 
and general of division. 
Yes, Gentlemen, Carnot had ambition ; but, as he said 
himself, 7¢ was the ambition of the three hundred Spartans 
going to defend Thermopyle ! 
The man who, in an all-powerful position, had never 
thought of making himself the equal of those whose vast 
operations he was directing, also disdained the gifts of 
fortune. When he returned to private life, his small 
patrimony was scarcely intact. How is it, with the most 
simple tastes, with a strong antipathy for pageantry and 
