[117] Nothing but a prolonged
war, or designedly begun again, a war indefinitely and systematically
extended, a war supported by conquest and pillage can give armies
food, keep generals busy, the nation resigned, the maintenance of
power of the ruling faction, and secure to the Directors their places,
their profits, their dinners and their mistresses. And this is why
they, at first, break with England through repeated exactions, and
then with Austria and the Emperor, through premeditated attacks, and
again with Switzerland, Piedmont, Tuscany, Naples, Malta, Russia and
even the Porte.[118] At length, the veils fall and the character of
the sect stands out nakedly. Defense of the country, deliverance of
the people, all its grand phrases disappear in the realm of empty
words. It reveals itself just as it is, an association of pirates on
a cruise, who after ravaging their own coast, go further off and
capture bodies and goods, men and things. Having eaten France, the
Parisian band undertakes to eat all Europe, "leaf by leaf, like the
head of an artichoke."[119]
Why recount the tragic comedy they play at home and which they repeat
abroad? The piece abroad is the same as that played in Paris for the
past eight years,[120] an absurd, hasty translation in Flemish, Dutch,
German, and Italian, a local adaptation, just as it happens, with
variations, elisions and abbreviations, but always with the same
ending, a shower of blows with gun and sword on all property-owners,
communities, and individuals, compelling the surrender of their purses
and valuables of every description, and which they gave up, even to
remaining without a sou or even a shirt.
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