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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: to say of Peyrade's youth that in 1782 he was in the confidence of
chiefs of the police and the hero of the department, highly esteemed
by MM. Lenoir and d'Albert, the last Lieutenant-Generals of Police.
The Revolution had no police; it needed none. Espionage, though common
enough, was called public spirit.
The Directorate, a rather more regular government than that of the
Committee of Public Safety, was obliged to reorganize the Police, and
the first Consul completed the work by instituting a Prefect of Police
and a department of police supervision.
Peyrade, a man knowing the traditions, collected the force with the
assistance of a man named Corentin, a far cleverer man than Peyrade,
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