But the cry went up, “He is the fri

But the cry went up, “He is the friend of our enemies!” He was the new Custine, the new Dumouriez, one more in the long line of hypocrites and seducers of the people. And the Committee—even if it knew, as Carnot must have known, that Houchard’s fault was not his own, that the error lay rather with the men who, determined to have a non-noble general, had hurriedly raised him to a position for which he was unqualified—could not face the truth, still less make it public, without exposing itself to the wrath of patriots and perhaps itself incurring denunciations for treason.