It is a professional diplomat, Barth?lemy, who, after the 9th of
Thermidor, really directs the foreign policy of the Convention, and
brings about the peace of Basle.
III. The three classes of Notables.
The Nobility. - Its physical and moral preparation through feats of
arms. - The military spirit. - High character. - Conduct of
officers in 1789-1792. - Service for which these nobles were adapted.
Three classes, the nobles, the clergy and the bourgeoisie, provided
this superior ?lite, and, compared with the rest of the nation, they
themselves formed an ?lite. - Thirty thousand gentlemen, scattered
through the provinces, had been brought up from infancy to the
profession of arms; generally poor, they lived on their rural estates
without luxuries, comforts or curiosity, in the society of wood-
rangers and game-keepers, frugally and with rustic habits, in the open
air, in such a way as to ensure robust constitutions. A child, at six
years of age, mounted a horse; he followed the hounds, and hardened
himself against inclemencies;[62] afterwards, in the academies, he
rendered his limbs supple by exercise and obtained that rugged health
which is necessary for living under a tent and following a campaign.
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