) "On Brumaire 23, year II., I was stopped
just as I was taking post at Mussy, travelling on business for the
Republic, and provided with a commission and passport from the
Minister of war. . . . I was searched in the most shameful manner;
citizen M?n?trier, member of the committee, used towards me the
foulest language . . . . I was confined in a tavern; instead of
two gendarmes which would have been quite sufficient to guard me, I
had the whole brigade, who passed that night and the next day
drinking, until, in wine and brandy the charge against me in the
tavern amounted to sixty francs. And worse still, two members of the
same committee passed a night guarding me and made me pay for it. Add
to this, they said openly before me that I was a good pigeon to pluck.
. . . They gave me the escort of a state criminal of the highest
importance, three national gendarmes, mounted, six National Guards,
and even to the Commandant of the National Guard; citizen Mi?dan,
member of the revolutionary committee, put himself at the head of the
cortege, ten men to conduct one! . . . . I was obliged to pay my
torturers, fifty francs to the commandant, and sixty to his men.
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