"Citizen president, you see I have been prompt to comply with your request; I am here in answer to your summons."
Robespierre raised his head, and started from his soliloquy.
"Ah yes, you are the citizen colonel who appeared to-day before the committee to answer certain charges."
"I am," replied Tournay.
"Citizen colonel," said Robespierre, "I will be perfectly frank with you. The Committee of Public Safety, whose dearest wish, whose only thought, is the welfare of the Republic," here the president's small eyes blinked in rapid succession, "is not quite satisfied with the condition of affairs in the army."
"I am sorry to hear that, citizen president, and in behalf of the army, I would call the committee's attention to the recent battles in which the soldiers of France have certainly borne themselves with great bravery. I speak now as one of their officers who is justly proud of them."
"It is not the conduct of the soldiers of which the committee finds cause of complaint," replied Robespierre, "but of their generals."
"It is not for me to criticise my superior officers," said Tournay. "I leave that to the nation."
"The committee has good reason to criticise the attitude of certain of its generals, who seem to have forgotten that they are merely citizens. They have been chosen to serve the Republic only for a time in a more exalted position than their fellow citizens, yet they have become swollen with pride, and take to themselves the credit of the victories won by their armies. Their dispatches to the convention are couched in arrogant and sometimes insolent language."
Tournay bowed. "Again I must refrain from expressing my opinion on such a matter," he said.