He believed that he comprehended the part of a great citizen in a free country; he desired to do so.

He forgot too easily, in the atmosphere of adulation which surrounded him, that a man is not a great citizen only to please the people, but to defend--serve--and frequently to resist them.
Returned to Paris, he was desirous of joining the _prestige_ of glory of arms to the civic crowns, with which his name was already decorated.

He solicited of the court the dignity of _grand-admiral_ of France, the survivorship of which belonged to him, after the Duc de Penthievre, his father-in-law.

He was refused.

He embarked as a volunteer on board the fleet, commanded by the Comte d'Orvilliers, and was at the battle of Ouessant on the 17th of July, 1778.