Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/41

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OF THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.
17


to-do people for your judges, they may be mistaken like anyone else; and their judgments are severe, and not always just.

Accordingly you see that, on the sole charge of having,—at sixteen,—"a fierce and violent character, and refusing to do any kind of work," I found myself on the 19th February, 1775, on the road from Paris to Lyon, or, more strictly speaking, on the road to Pierre-en-Cize. The child had by his side his nurse,—I mean a gendarme,—and before him the pleasant prospect of remaining locked up for the remainder of his life.