m he took
out of prison; he rides about the streets with her in an open carriage,
"with a courier behind and a courier in front," sometimes wearing the
red cap and holding a pike in her hand,[32140] thus exhibiting his
goddess to the people. And this is the sentiment which does him the most
credit; for, when the crisis comes, the imminent peril of his mistress
arouses his courage against Robespierre, and this pretty
woman, who is good-natured, begs him, not for murders, but for
pardons.[32141]--Others, as gallant as he is, but with less taste,
obtain recruits for their pleasures in a rude way, either as fast-livers
on the wing, or because fear subjects the honor of women to their
caprices, or because the public funds defray the expenses of their
guard-room habits. At Blois, for this kind of expenditure, Guimberteau
discharges his obligations by drafts on the proceeds of the
revolutionary tax.[32142] Carrier, at Nantes, appropriates to himself
the house and garden of a private person for "his seraglio"; the reader
may judge whether, on desiring to be a third party in the household, the
husband would make objections. At other times, in the hotel Henry IV.,
"with his friends and prostitutes brought under requisition, he has an
orgy;" he allows himself the same indulgence on the galiot during the
drownings; there at the end of a drunken frolic, he is regaled with
merry songs, for example, "la gamelle":[32143] he needs his amusements.

Some, who are shrewd, think of the more substantial and look out for
the future. Foremost among these is Tallien, the king of robbers, but
prodigal, whose pockets, full of holes, are only filled to be at once
emptied; Javogues, who makes the most of Montbrison; Rovere, who, for
eighty thousand francs in assignats, has an estate adjudged to him worth
five hundred thousand francs in coin; Fouche, who, in Nievre, begins to
amass the twelve or fourteen millions which he secures later on;[32144]
and so many others, who were either ruined or impoverished previous to
the outbreak of the Revolution, and who are rich when it ends: Barras
with his domain of Gros Bois; Andre Dumont, with the Hotel de Plouy, its
magnificent furniture, and an estate worth four hundred thousand livres;
Merlin de Thionville, with his country-houses, equipages, and domain
of Mont-Valerien, and other domains; Salicetti, Reubell, Rousselin,
Chateauneuf-Randon, and the rest of the gluttonous and corrupted members
of the Director