After this affair, the new general appointed by the Executive Powers was no longer addressed as citizen Alexandre Dumas, he was known only by a name sufficiently compromising at that time--especially among the people who had dubbed him with it--that of _Monsieur de l'Humanité._ Dispute if you wish, gentlemen, my name of Davy de la Pailleterie; but what you cannot dispute is the fact that I am the son of a man who in face of the enemy was called _Horatius Cocles,_ and before a scaffold _Monsieur de l'Humanité._ CHAPTER V My father is appointed General-in-Chief of the Army of the West--His report on the state of La Vendée--My father is sent to the Army of the Alps as General-in-Chief--State of the army--Capture of Mont Valaisan and of the Little Saint-Bernard--Capture of Mont Cenis--My father is recalled to render an account of his conduct--What he had done--He is acquitted. It can be seen that such a state of things could not last: moreover, my father by his resistance risked his life in a far more dangerous game than that of the battlefield. The Committee of Public Safety replied on the 10th of Frimaire in the following terms:-- "The Committee of Public Safety decrees: "That the Provisional Executive Council shall immediately send 10,000 men of the Army of the Western Pyrenees into la Vendée to join the portion of the Army of the West which is acting against the rebels of that department and its neighbouring tracts on the left bank of the Loire. This division is to be under the command of General Dumas. "The Executive Council is to take the most active steps to carry out these orders, and must forward its despatches by special courier. "_Signed in the Records_: "ROBESPIERRE, LINDET, RIVIÈRE, CARNOT, BILLAULD-VARENNES, and C. A. PRIEUR. "Authenticated copy. "J. BOUCHOTTE, Minister of War." My father went to la Vendée. There he found an entirely different state of things. As soon as he arrived General Canclaux was recalled to Paris under suspicion. Everything fell on my father's shoulders; and he received the chief command of the Army of the West. He began his work by taking stock of the men at his disposal, as a good workman before setting to work examines the tools in his hands. The tools were bad, according to my father's report. If we read it attentively in the light of to-day, if we take careful note of the time it was penned (17 Vendémiaire, year II), we shall see that there was sufficient matter in this report to have guillotined him twenty times over. It was miraculous that he escaped. Here is the report:-- "REPORT ON THE ARMY OF LA VENDÉE. "WESTERN ARMY. "GENERAL QUARTERS AT FONTENAY-LE-PEUPLE, _17th Vendémiaire, Year II of the Republic, one and indivisible._ "_The Commander-in-Chief to the Committee of Public Safety._