in the pride which is stimulated by
the imagination and by success; add to this the necessity for finding
an outlet for their energy, the steam and high pressure of youth; nearly
all are very young men, who regard life, in Gallic or French fashion, as
a party of pleasure and as a duel. But to feel brave and to prove that
one is so, to face bullets for amusement and defiantly, to abandon a
successful adventure for a battle and a battle for a ball, to enjoy
ones-self and take risks to excess, without dissimulating, and with
no other object than the sensation of the moment,[1234] to revel in
excitement through emulation and danger, is no longer self-devotion,
but giving one's-self up to one's fancies; and, for all who are not
harebrained, to give one's-self up to one's fancies means to make one's
way, obtain promotion, pillage so as to become rich, like Massena,
and conquer so as to become powerful, like Bonaparte.--All this is
understood between the general and his army from the very first,[1235]
and, after one year's experience, the understanding is perfect. One
moral is derived from their common acts, vague in the army, precise in
the general; what the army only half sees, he sees clearly; if he urges
his comrades on, it is because they follow their own inclination. He
simply has a start on them, and is quicker to make up his mind that the
world is a grand banquet, free to the first-comer, but at which, to be
well served, one must have long arms, be the first to get helped, and
let the rest take what is left.

So natural does this seem to him, he says so openly and to men who are
not his intimates; to Miot, a diplomat, and to Melzi a foreigner:

"Do you suppose, says he to them,[1236] after the preliminaries of
Leoben, "that to make great men out of Directory lawyers, the Carnots'
and the Barras, I triumph in Italy? Do you suppose also that it is for
the establishment of a republic? What an idea! A republic of thirty
million men! With our customs, our vices, how is that possible? It is
a delusion which the French are infatuated with and which will vanish
along with so many others. What they want is glory, the gratification of
vanity--they know nothing about liberty. Look at the army! Our successes
just obtained, our triumphs have already brought out the true character
of the French soldier. I am all for him. Let the Directory deprive me of
the command and it will see if it is master. The nation needs a chief,
one who i