Page:Rolland - Two Plays of the French Revolution.djvu/182

176 though his voice trembles with anger and grief feel remorse for only one thing: having sacrificed my life to an ungrateful nation. I have suffered for it during the past thirty years. I've gone through every form of misery. Ten times I have saved the country from invasion. It never recognized my services. The first impostor that comes along denounces me; they believe anonymous letters from soldiers I punished for cowardice; they accuse me, threaten me, degrade me from my rank, while damned little rapscallions are promoted over my head. I must obey Rossignol, a stupid little goldsmith who knows nothing about war, whose reputation is made on his silly blunders. All his titles merely prove the vileness of his origin. Kléber, Dubayet, and Marceau are wasting away in some petty position, and that shopkeeper Niort commands both the armies!

Republic places more confidence in a commander with true Republican loyalty than in mere military heads.

confidence does the Republic place in Rossignol's defeats?

responsibility for them does not rest on Rossignol's shoulders, but upon those who are about him. If Kléber, Dubayet, and Westermann are so proud of their ability, why do they not put it at the service of the general whom the nation has placed at their head?

you want to deprive us of our just glory?

.