fortification, and went over to the
"perpendicular" school of Montalembert. He was consequently imprisoned,
on the pretext of having fought a duel, and only released when selected
to accompany Prince Henry of Prussia in a visit to Vauban's
fortifications. In 1791 he married. The Revolution drew him into
political life, and he was elected a deputy for the Pas de Calais. In
the Assembly he took a prominent part in debates connected with the
army. Carnot was a stern and sincere republican, and voted for the
execution of the king. In the campaigns of 1792 and 1793 he was
continually employed as a commissioner in military matters, his greatest
service being in April 1793 on the north-eastern frontier, where the
disastrous battle of Neerwinden and the subsequent defection of
Dumouriez had thrown everything into confusion. After doing what was
possible to infuse energy into the operations of the French forces, he
returned to Paris and was made a member of the Committee of Public
Safety. He was charged with duties corresponding to those of the modern
chief of the general staff and adjutant-general. As a member of the
committee he signed its decrees and was thus at least technically
responsible for the acts of the Reign of Terror. His energies were,
however, directed to the organization, not yet of victory, but of
defence. His labours were incessant; practically every military document
in the archives of the committee was Carnot's own work, and he was
repeatedly in the field with the armies. His part in Jourdan's great
victory at Wattignies was so important that the credit of the day has
often been assigned to Carnot. The winter of 1793-1794 was spent in new
preparations, in instituting a severe discipline in the new and
ill-trained troops of the republic, and in improvising means and
material of war. He continued to visit the armies at the front, and to
inspire them with energy. He acquiesced in the fall of Robespierre in
1794, but later defended Barere and others among his colleagues,
declaring that he himself had constantly signed papers without reading
them, as it was physically impossible to do so in the press of business.
When Carnot's arrest was demanded in May 1795, a deputy cried "Will you
dare to lay hands on the man who has organized victory?" Carnot had just
accepted promotion to the rank of major in the engineers. Throughout
1793, when he had been the soul of the national defence, and 1794, in
which year he had "orga