334 
France, he was guilty of an action which 
favoured at once of cruelty and military 
defpotiim.—In the vicinity of Treves is 
an abbey of Metloch, the preientation to 
which became at that time an objec of dit- 
pute. By right, and immemorial ufage, 
it belonged to the bifhop ; but fome iz- 
trigans, who wifhed to create a place for 
a favourite, perfuaded the court of France 
to arrogate to itfelf the nomination of the 
abbot; and troops were fent to live at 
free quarters upon the monks. Cuttines, 
who had received no orders, repaired 
thither, and brought back, in irons, the 
bailiff of Bouzonville, whom the German 
abbot had taken for his defender. Befides 
the injuitice of this conduct, there was 
much inhumanity, in bringing mito’ the 
midft of his family, in fo ignominious a 
manner, a worthy man, who had grown 
old in an honourable employment, and 
who was the tather of two Chevaliers de 
Saint Louis. This action appeared fo 
abominable to the Count de Broglie, 
commandant of the city of Mentz, that, 
after having put Cuftines under an arreft, 
he accompanied the bailiff of Bouzonville 
to Vérfailles, where he affifted him in ob- 
_taining juftice. 
The authenticity of thefe two facts 
may be depended on. ‘They do very 
little honour to the moral character of 
Cultines: they difcover a haughtinefs of 
mind, and an afperity of difpofition; and 
ferve, in fome degree, as an explanation 
of his political life. 
When the command of the army of the 
Rhine was given to Lukner, Cuftines re- 
ceived orders to take poffeffion of the de- 
files of Porentrui, in order to keep out 
the Auftrians, who might from thence 
have over-run Alface and Franche-Comté. 
Cuftines followed the example of Du- 
mourier, who had juft refuied to obey 
La Fayette’s orders, under the pretence 
of patriotilm. Whatever his motive 
might be, he paid no attention to thofe 
of Lukner. 
The confequence of this difobedience 
was in both inftances the fame. The two 
mutineers were ordered to fuperfede thofe 
whofe commands they had not chofen to 
execute. Cultines, indeed, did not per- 
fevere in his refufal: he took poffeffion 
of the defiles without meeting with any 
Oppolition ; but it was not till after he had 
received repeated-orders from Paris. An 
opportunity will occur more than once, of 
making a comparifon between thefe two 
men, both of whom made fo great a 
figure in the early. part of the revolu- 
fon. 
Anecdotes of Cuftines. 
[June 
When Cuftines had fucceeded to Luk- 
ner, in the command of the army of- the 
Rhine, he advanced as far as Mentz, 
driving before him a handful of Auftrians. 
The magiftrates of that city, alarmed at 
his appearance, opened their gates to - 
him, and thefe conquefts, as eafy as rapid, 
were followed by the entrance of th 
French into Frankfort. - ; 
The King of Pruffia had not yet made 
peace. He was indeed difpoted to do fo, 
by the reprefentation of the Duke of 
Brunfwick, by the ruin of his army on 
the frontiers of Champaign; and, above 
all, by his hatred againft the Houfe of 
Auftria, and his views of aggrandize- 
ment on the fide of Poland. But Frank- 
fort and Mentz, in the hands of the 
French, in{pired him with well-founded 
alarm; and he took meafures for the re- 
covery of thofe two cities. It is no more 
than jultice to Cuftines, to fay, that he 
had provided fome of the means requifite 
for his maintaining himfelf in Mentz, 
particularly by adding to the fortifica- 
tions of a city already ftrong by nature, 
and capable of fuftaming a long fiege. 
He took a pleafure in calling it the tomb 
of the Germans ; and from that place it 
was that, in imitation of Dumourier, he 
addreffed to the legiflative body a number 
of letters, which were far from being 
honourable to the general’s modefty. In 
like manner, Dumourier, after the defeat 
of the Pruffian and Auftrian armies, 
wrote to the Convention, that in a fhort 
time he would go and beat the enemy, 
and drive him out of Flanders. 
Perhaps this rage for writing, com- 
mon to the two generals, proceeded no lefs 
from policy than trom the natural vanity 
of their difpofition. It may at leaft be 
faid, that it railed the fpirits of a people 
who had been menaced upon all their 
frontiers ; and, by increafing our hopes, 
probably increafed the means of realizing 
them. But both of them, after a fhort- 
lived blaze, faw the glory difappear by 
which they had been environed ; one of 
them lofing himfelf in the crowd of thofe 
who have confpired againft their country, 
and the other, though perhaps not cul- 
pable, perifhing as if he had done the 
fame. 
The firft affront that Cuftines’ fortune 
met with was the fource of twenty others, 
which tarnifhed the glory of his arms, 
and led him to the block. It was at 
Frankfort his difafters began ; and, un- 
fortunately for his reputation, it appears 
that he was neither wife enough to ee 
Cea 
