- Authorized by the minister, the
soldier goes to the club, where he is repeatedly told that his
officers, being aristocrats, are traitors. At Dunkirk, he is
additionally taught how to get rid of them. Clamors, denunciations,
insults, musket-shots - these are the natural means, and they are
put in practice: but there is another, recently discovered, by which
an energetic officer of whom they are afraid may be driven away.
Some patriotic bully is found who comes and insults him. If the
officer fights and is not killed, the municipal authorities have him
arraigned, and his chiefs send him off along with his seconds "in
order not to disturb the harmony between the soldier and the
citizen." If he declines the proposed duel, the contempt of his men
obliges him to quit the regiment. In either case he is got out of
the way.[43] - They have no scruples in relation to him. Present
or absent, a noble officer must certainly be plotting with his
emigrant companions; and on this a story is concocted.
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