" In Euree-et-Loir, the dragoons,[38] with saber
and pistols in hand, visit the farmers' houses and take bread and
money, while the foot soldiers of the "Royal-Comtois" and the
dragoons of the "Colonel-G?n?ral" desert in bands in order to go to
Paris, where amusement is to be had. The main thing with them is
"to have a jolly time." In fact, the extensive military
insurrections of the earliest date, those of Paris, Versailles,
Besan?on, and Strasbourg, began or ended with a revel. - Out of
these depths of gross desires there has sprung up natural or
legitimate ambitions. A number of soldiers, for twenty years past,
have learned how to read, and think themselves qualified to be
officers. One quarter of those enlisted, moreover, are young men
born in good circumstances, and whom a caprice has thrown into the
army. They choke in this narrow, low, dark, confined passage where
the privileged by birth close up the issue, and they will march over
their chiefs to secure advancement.
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