-au-feu to be placed on the chimney hearth and, on
the table, "fine wine and fine white bread; three articles," says a
guest, "not to be found elsewhere in all Paris." Between twelve and two
o'clock, his colleagues enter the room in turn, take a plate of soup
and a slice of meat, swallow some wine, and then proceed, each to his
bureau, to receive his coterie, giving this one an office and compelling
another to pay up, looking all the time after his own special interests.
At this moment, especially, towards the close of the Convention, there
are no public interests, all interests being private and personal.--In
the mean time, the deputy in charge of provisions, Roux de la Haute
Marne, an unfrocked Benedictine, formerly a terrorist in the provinces,
subsequently the protege and employee of Fouche, with whom he is to be
associated in the police department, keeps the throng of women in
check which daily resorts to the Tuileries to beg for bread. He is well
adapted for this duty, being tall, chubby, ornamental, and with vigorous
lungs. He has taken his office in the right place, in the attic of the
palace, at the top of long, narrow and steep stairs, so that the line
of women stretching up between the two walls, piled one above the other,
necessarily becomes immovable. With the exception of the two or three at
the front, no one has her hands free to grab the haranguer by the throat
and close the oratorical stop-cock. He can spout his tirades accordingly
with impunity, and for an indefinite time. On one occasion, his sonorous
jabber rattles away uninterruptedly from the top to the bottom of the
staircase, from nine o'clock in the morning to five o'clock in the
afternoon. Under such a voluble shower, his hearers become weary and end
by going home.--About nine or ten o'clock in the evening, the Committee
of Public Safety reassembles, but not to discuss business. Danton and La
Revelliere preach in vain; each is too egoistic and too worn-out; they
let the rein slacken on Cambaceres. As to him, he would rather keep
quiet and drag the cart no longer; but there are two things necessary
which he must provide for on pain of death.--"It will not do," says he
in plaintive tones, "to keep on printing the assignats at night which we
want for the next day. If that lasts, ma foi, we run the risk of being
strung up at a lantern...Go and find Hourier-Eloi, as he has charge of
the finances, and tell him that we entreat him to keep us a-going for