“Your defeats.”
“Pardon me, general; you mean to say Schérer’s defeats.
“Yours as well.”
“I was not answerable for the generals commanding our armies on the Rhine and in Italy until I was minister of war. If you will enumerate the victories and defeats since that time you will see on which side the scale turns.”
“You certainly do not intend to tell me that matters are in a good condition?”
“No, but I do say that they are not in so desperate state as you affect to believe.”
“As I affect!—Truly, general, to hear you one would think I had some interest in lowering France in the eyes of foreigners.
“I don’t say that; I say that I wish to settle the balance of our victories and defeats for the last three months; and as I came for that, and am now in your house, and in the position of an accused person—”
“Or an accuser.”
“As the accused, in the first instance—I begin.”