Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 7.djvu/187



stores and arms for a considerable sum, would also have delivered up the fortifications without defense, or have seized them with the armies of the Republic.

You know that this general abandoned at Liege 10,000 guns and 20,000 to 25,000 uniforms, which he had stored for the benefit of our enemies, while the soldiers of the Republic were in need of them; and to draw them over to his side, he made this hall ring with his hypocritical plaints of the destitution of the army, for the purpose of casting the blame upon this Convention.

The armies of the Rhine and the Moselle were obliged to retire and to abandon the vicinity of Mayence. They fell back in points along the frontier, and were in a sort of disorganization — the inevitable result of a forced retreat.

The Spaniards attacked on the side of Bayonne and Perpignan; the armies of the Eastern and Western Pyrenees, of which we had heard so much, and which we were constantly told were on the point of organizing, were totally destitute. They needed generals, there were no field guns, almost no carriages for their siege guns, almost no stores or food, and few soldiers.

The commissioners, Isnard, Aubry, and Despinassy, whom you sent to Perpignan, made you a very reassuring report on the condition of that frontier; nevertheless the representatives of the people, who were there at the time of the first invasion of the Spaniards, write you that it was