required by
present circumstances. Continue your revolutionary attitude; never mind
the amnesty pronounced with the acceptance of the absurd constitution of
1791; it is a crime which cannot extenuate other crimes. Anti-republicans
can only expiate their folly under the age of the guillotine. The public
Treasury will always pay the journeys and expenses of informers, because
they have deserved well of their country. Let all suspected traitors
expire by the sword or by fire; continue to march upon that revolutionary
line so well delineated by you. The committee applauds all your
undertakings, all your measures of vigour; they are not only all
permitted, but commanded by your mission." Most of the decrees
concerning the establishment of revolutionary tribunals, and particularly
that for the organization of the atrocious military commission at Orange,
were signed by him.

Carnot, as an officer of engineers, certainly is not without talents; but
his presumption in declaring himself the sole author of those plans of
campaign which, during the years 1794, 1795, and 1796, were so
triumphantly executed by Pichegru, Moreau, and Bonaparte, is impertinent,
as well as unfounded. At the risk of his own life, Pichegru entirely
altered the plan sent him by the Committee of Public Safety; and it was
Moreau's masterly retreat, which no plan of campaign could prescribe,
that made this general so famous. The surprising successes of Bonaparte
in Italy were both unexpected and unforeseen by the Directory; and,
according to Berthier's assertion, obliged the, commander-in-chief,
during the first four months, to change five times his plans of
proceedings and undertakings.

During his temporary sovereignty as a director, Carnot honestly has made
a fortune of twelve millions of livres; which has enabled him not only to
live in style with his wife, but also to keep in style two sisters, of
the name of Aublin, as his mistresses. He was the friend of the father
of these girls, and promised him, when condemned to the guillotine in
1793, to be their second father; but he debauched and ruined them both
before either was fourteen years of age; and young Aublin, who, in 1796,
reproached him with the infamy of his conduct, was delivered up by him to
a military commission, which condemned him to be shot as an emigrant. He
has two children by each of these unfortunate girls.

Bonaparte employs Carnot, but despises and mistrusts him; being well
aware tha