Note 272 — Front matter (continued 6)

"The princes," writes M. Fromont, "conceived the plan of forming legions of all the loyal subjects of the king. Desiring to be at the head of those Royalists whom I had commanded in 1789, I wrote to Count d'Artois, begging his royal highness to grant me the commission of colonel, worded so that every Royalist who would raise a legion might hope for a like favor. The members of his council thought it so strange that a commoner should aspire to a military commission, that one of them said to me angrily, 'Why did you not ask for a bishopric?'"—Recueil de divers Ecrits relatifs à la Revolution, p. 62.