D'Arcon directed the raising of the siege of Dunkirk and that of
Maubenge. . . . These officers were selected with discernment;
they planned and carried out the operations; aided by immense
resources, in the shape of maps, plans and reconnaissances preserved
in the war department, they really operated according to the
experience and intelligence of the great generals under the monarchy."
[61] Miot de Melito, "M?moires," I., 47. - Andre Michel,
"Correspondance de MalletDupan avec la Cour de Vienne," I., 26.
(January 3, 1795.) "The Convention feels so strongly the need of
suitable aids to support the burden of its embarrassments as to now
seek for them among pronounced royalists. For instance, it has just
offered the direction of the royal treasury to M. Dufresne, former
chief of the department under the reign of the late King, and retired
since 1790. It is the same spirit and making a still more
extraordinary selection, which leads them to appoint M. Gerard de
Rayneval to the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, chief-clerk of
correspondence since the ministry of the Duc de Choiseul until that of
the Comte de Montmorin inclusive. He is a man of decided opinions and
an equally decided character; in 1790 I saw him abandon the department
through aversion to the maxims which the Revolution had forcibly
introduced into it.
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