COLONEL BISSON. 118 
communications. He proves, besides, that he could not 
have had secret interviews at his house. He added: 
“T feel that people will say if it was not at your house it 
was elsewhere. Well, I declare, that during all the dura- 
tion of my directorial functions, I have not gone out twelve 
times without being accompanied by my wife, my sisters, 
or my children!” 
Tt is possible, Gentlemen, that in France, that else- 
where, men in power may have had this simplicity of 
habits, not to say integrity ; but I will acknowledge it, 
the rumour has not reached me. 
I have been speaking to you of the Man; now I will 
treat of the Minister. 
At the battle of Messenheim (1800), near Inspruck, 
Championnet remarks the temerity, the intrepidity of 
Colonel Bisson, and demands for him, with the applause 
of all the army, the epaulettes of a General of Brigade. 
. Weeks elapse, and the commission does not arrive. Bis- 
son grows impatient, goes to Paris, obtains an interview 
with the Minister, and in his anger, apostrophizes him in 
a rough manner. “ Young man,’ Carnot calmly replied 
to him, “it is possible that I may have committed an 
error; but your improper manners, really, might disin- 
cline me to repair it. Go, I will attentively examine 
your services.” “My services! Ah! I know too well 
that you despise them, you, who from the shelter of your 
cabinet coolly send us the order to die. Protected from 
danger, and from the rigour of the seasons, you have 
already forgotten, and you will continue to forget, that 
our blood flows, and that we lie on the hard ge 
“Colonel, this is too much! For your own interests, 
our interview must not continue in this tone. Retire! 
Your address, if you please? Go! you will shortly hear 
from me.” 
