386 
command of the army of the North, where 
the danger was more preffing. Before he 
guitted the army of the Rhine, he was 
again beat in the lines of Weiflemburg. 
How was this new difafter to be excufed ? 
The good o' the Republic had imperioufly 
required his abfence ; Bournonville had 
jeft him in want of every thing ; and the 
enemy had availed himfelf of this fault to 
attack the French with a fuperior torce. 
Such, according to Cultines, was the 
fource of the evil. 
Before we follow him to the army of 
the North, let us fuppofe that he had con- 
ceived the idea of betraying the Repu- 
blic ; that, either in concert with Dumou- 
rier, or feparately, he wifhed to re-eftablifh 
Monarchy ? How would he have con- 
du&ed himfelf the better to attain his 
end? This is not a vague fuppofition. 
Many people have thought, and ftill think, 
that he picked up the mafk that had been 
torn away from the other general. He 
fuffered Franckfort to be taken by Pruf- 
fians in the difguife of butchers; he 
abandoned Mentz to the Pruffian army ; 
and he allowed himfelf to be beaten by 
them both when he returned to the latter 
city, and when he evacuated it. Defeated 
afterwards in the lines of Weiflemburg, 
he quitted an army weakened and dif- 
couraged, to appear upon a theatre ftill 
more bloody, which Dumourier had made 
the {cene of all forts of perfidy. 
Let us now examine how Cuftines con- 
duGed himfelf there. If he made an effort 
to fuccour the French towns hard prefled 
by the enemy; and to defend a country 
ravaged before his face ; if he opposed ar- 
tifice to fuperior force ; if, in a word, he 
employed the refources of a great Gene- 
ral, it muft be confefled that the fuppo- 
fition of his confpiring againft the Repub- 
lic hasno foundation. But if his mili- 
tary conduét was even beneath a man of 
ordinary capacity, it is natural to conclude 
either that his intentions were bad, or that 
he had none of the qualities neceflary for 
a Commander in Chief. What then did 
Cultines do when with the army of the 
North ? Abfolutely nothing. Motionlefs 
under the walls ot Cambray he fuffered 
the enemy to ravage unaifturbed all the 
country as far as St. Quintin. He made 
no attempt to relieve Valenciennes, not 
even by harraffing the weakeft out-polt. 
A modern Fabius, he would have wit- 
neffed the taking of Lille, if the fiege of 
that place had been renewed, without 
changing his ground, unless it were to 
give up fome advantageous poft to the 
enemy. Without being inclined to fulpeét 
evil rather than good; without Jaying 
Anecdotes of Cujitnes. 
j June 
afide the refpeét due to misfortune, and 
to thofe who are no more, it is fair to in- 
fer from the whole of this conduét, that 
he was either a traitor, or entirely defti- 
tute of milttary talents. How eHe, in- 
deed, is it poflible to account for fo much 
oftentation in his letters ; fo much 'char- 
Jatanry in his language, that proud 
difplay of valour in his proceedings, that 
affectation of haughtinefs, that Quixotifm, 
in a word, fo truly unnatural? What are 
we to think of a man always viftorious 
when he had only a weak flying party 
before him; always beaten when he 
promifed a victory; inceflantly offering 
to reign when with an army which 
had mou'dered away under his com- 
mand, and taking charge notwithftanding 
of another, which he fuffered to wafte it- 
felf in inaétion ? He offered his arm as a 
fubaltern, nay, as a private foldier, and 
yet he fuffered the cities of the Republic 
to be facked, and its plains to be laid 
wafte, in his prefence ; remaining a paf- 
five fpeCtator of thefe deplorable fcenes in 
his camp near Cambray;: a camp ho- 
noured with the name of Cefar, the re- 
membrance of whom cught to have roufed 
him from his itupid floth! Did he, like 
Czefar, wait for the name of Di&tator, to 
repulfe the enemies who already threatened 
Paris. Moft afiuredly then, while in 
expectation of the fentence that pofterity 
will pronounce on this man, it is no 
breach of found logic to conclude either 
that like Dumourier he had formed a plan 
to betray his country, or that he was ut- 
terly ignorant of the art of war. How- 
ever itrange this laft aflertion may appear, 
it is not only the moft honourable to 
human nature; but, perhaps the neareft 
to truth. Cuftines, in fa&, had only 
ferved while very young, at the latter end 
of the war of Hanover. From that pe- 
riod to the American war, he pafled his 
time, like moft of the young French of- 
ficers of thofe days, rather in diffipation 
than ftudy ; and he had little opportunity 
of improvement in America, fince he re- 
turned to France foon after the affront he 
received from the officers of his regiment. 
Some men have exhibited talents beyond 
their years, becaufe nature has endowed 
them with uncommon genius, and be- 
caufe they have applied ftrenuouily to 
ftudy at an early age. Neither of thefe 
reafons holds pood as to Cuftines, and 
therefore it is that his military operations 
ought not to place him in the rank of trai- 
tors. If guilty, however, he loft all his 
courage when he came to the block ; and 
by fome was faid to have died like a Ca- 
puchin Friar. It blamelefs, he did not 
like 
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