COUNCIL OF THE ELDERS. 55 



where that victory abanJoned 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 brilHant successes, of wliat 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 Sieyes, 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 eujld francs (I am not mistaken), the 

 eight francs ])er month "en numeraire," (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 



