'
'Marshal Randon,' I said, 'told me that the whole loss in the Italian
campaign was under 7,000 men.'
'That is a good instance,' said Beaumont. 'It certainly was 50,000,
perhaps 70,000. But I am guilty of a _delit_ in saying so, and you will
be guilty of a _delit_ if you repeat what I have said. I remember the
case of a man in a barber's shop in Tours, to whom the barber said that
the harvest was bad. He repeated the information, and was punished by
fine and imprisonment for having spread _des nouvelles alarmantes_. Truth
is no excuse; in fact it is an aggravation, for the truer the news the
more alarming.'
'In time of peace,' I asked, 'what proportion of the conscripts return
after their six years of service?'
'About three-quarters,' answered Beaumont.
'Then,' I said, 'as you take 100,000 conscripts every year even in peace,
you lose 25,000 of your best young men every year?'
'Certainly,' said Beaumont.
'And are the 75,000 who return improved or deteriorated?' I asked.
'Improved,' said Ampere; 'they are _degourdis_, they are educated, they
submit to authority, they know how to shift for themselves.'
'Deteriorated,' said Beaumont.
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