-- In vain he abstains from
provocation and reduces himself to the standing of a private
individual. In vain does he patiently endure numerous provocations
and resist only extreme violence. I have read many hundreds of
investigations in the original manuscripts, and almost always I have
admired the humanity of the nobles, their forbearance, their horror
of bloodshed. Not only are a great many of them men of courage and
all men of honor, but also, educated in the philosophy of the
eighteenth century, they are mild, sensitive, and deeds of violence
are repugnant to them. Military officers especially are exemplary,
their great defect being their weakness: rather than fire on the
crowd they surrender the forts under their command, and allow
themselves to be insulted and stoned by the people. For two
years,[32] "exposed to a thousand outrages, to defamation, to daily
peril, persecuted by clubs and misguided soldiers," disobeyed,
menaced, put under arrest by their own men, they remain at their
post to prevent the ranks from being broken up; "with stoic
perseverance they put up with contempt of their authority that they
may preserve its semblance, their courage is of that rarest kind
which consists in remaining at the post of duty, impassive beneath
both affronts and blows.
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