" Awaiting the required
declaration, they claim command and, in reality, exercise it. "I know
of neither generals nor privates," says Gaston, a former justice of
the peace, to the officers; "as to the Minister, he is like a bull in
a china shop; I am in command here and must be obeyed." "What are
generals good for?" adds his colleague Guiter; "the old women in our
faubourgs know as much as they do. Plans, formal maneuvers, tents,
camps, redoubts? All this is of no use! The only war suitable to
Frenchmen after this will be a rush with side arms." To turn out of
office, guillotine, disorganize, march blindly on, waste lives
haphazard, force defeat, sometimes get killed themselves, is all they
know, and they would lose all if the effects of their incapacity and
arrogance were not redeemed by the devotion of the officers and the
enthusiasm of the soldiers. - The same spectacle is visible at
Charleroy where, through his absurd orders, Saint-Just does his best
to compromise the army, leaving that place with the belief that he is
a great man.[114] - There is the same spectacle in Alsace, where
Lacoste, Baudot, Ruamps, Soubrany, Muhaud, Saint-Just and Lebas,
through their excessive rigor, do their best to break up the army and
then boast of it.
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