"Savary," he said, pointing out a passage on the paper, "read this
to me. Read the conclusion of Raynouard's speech. Read it aloud!" He
handed the paper to the duke, and pointed out the passage.
Savary read as follows: "'Let us attempt no dissimulation--our evils
are at their height; the country is menaced on the frontiers at all
points; commerce is annihilated, agriculture languishes, industry is
expiring; there is no Frenchman who has not, in his family or his
fortune, some cruel wound to heal. The facts are notorious, and can
never be sufficiently enforced. Agriculture, for the last five
years, has gained nothing; it barely exists, and the fruit of its
toil is annually dissipated by the treasury, which unceasingly
devours every thing to satisfy the cravings of ruined and famished
armies. The conscription has become, for all France, a frightful
scourge, because it has always been driven to extremities in its
execution. For the last three years the harvest of death has been
reaped three times a year! A barbarous war, without object, swallows
up the youth torn from their education, from agriculture, commerce,
and the arts. Have the tears of mothers and the blood of whole
generations thus become the patrimony of kings? It is fit that
nations should have a moment's breathing-time; the period has
arrived when they should cease to tear out each other's entrails; it
is time that thrones should be consolidated, and that our enemies be
deprived of the plea that we are forever striving to carry into the
world the torch of revolution.
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