"
By virtue of the same right we dispose of persons as we do of things.
We decree the levy en masse and, stranger still, we carry it out, at
least in many parts of the country, and we keep it up for months: in
Vend?e, and in the northern and eastern departments, it is the entire
male, able-bodied population, up to fifty years of age, which we drive
in herds against the enemy.[10] We afterwards sign an entire
generation on, all young men between eighteen and twenty-five, almost
a million of men:[11] whoever fails to appear is put in irons for ten
years; he is regarded as a deserter; his property is confiscated, and
his family is punished as well; later he is classed with the
emigrants, condemned to death, and his father, mother and progenitors,
treated as "suspects," imprisoned and their possessions taken. -- To
clothe, shoe and equip our recruits, we must have workmen; we summon
to head-quarters all gunsmiths, blacksmiths and locksmiths, all the
tailors and shoemakers of the district, "foremen, apprentices and
boys;"[12] we imprison those who do not come ; we install the rest in
squads in public buildings and assign them their tasks ; they are
forbidden to furnish anything to private individuals.
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