passions and the conquest of the majority by the minority; conquering
or conquered, a choice must be made between these two extreme
conditions; there is no middle course. After the 9th of Thermidor,
the last veils are torn away, and the instincts of license and
domination, the ambitions of individuals, fully display themselves.
There is no concern for public interests or for the rights of the
people; it is clear that the rulers form a band, that France is their
prey, and that they intend to hold on to it for and against everybody,
by every possible means, including bayonets. Under this civil régime,
a clean sweep of the broom at the center makes it necessary to be on
the side of numbers. - In the armies, especially in the army of Italy,
republican faith and patriotic abnegation, since the territory became
free, have given way to natural appetites and military passions.[32]
Barefoot, in rags, with four ounces of bread a day, paid in assignats
which are not accepted in the markets, both officers and men desire
above all things to be relieved of their misery; "the poor fellows,
after three years of longing on the summits of the Alps, reach the
promised land, and want to enjoy it."[33] Another spur consists in the
pride which is stimulated by the imagination and by success; add to
this the necessity for finding an outlet for their energy, the steam
and high pressure of youth ; nearly all are very young men, who regard
life, in Gallic or French fashion, as a party of pleasure and as a
duel. But to feel brave and to prove that one is so, to face bullets
for amusement and defiantly, to abandon a successful adventure for a
battle and a battle for a ball, to enjoy ones-self and take risks to
excess, without dissimulating, and with no other object than the
sensation of the moment,[34] to revel in excitement through emulation
and danger, is no longer self-devotion, but giving one's-self up to
one's fancies ; and, for all who are not harebrained, to give one's-
self up to one's fancies means to make one's way, obtain promotion,