atholic charity
what system is to art, or reasoning to deed. This conscientious puritan
of freedom, this apostle of an impossible equality, regretted keenly
that his poverty forced him to serve the government, and he made various
efforts to find a place elsewhere. Tall, lean, lanky, and solemn in
appearance, like a man who expects to be called some day to lay down his
life for a cause, he lived on a page of Volney, studied Saint-Just, and
employed himself on a vindication of Robespierre, whom he regarded as
the successor of Jesus Christ.

The last of the individuals belonging to these bureaus who merits
a sketch here is the little La Billardiere. Having, to his great
misfortune, lost his mother, and being under the protection of the
minister, safe therefore from the tyrannies of Baudoyer, and received
in all the ministerial salons, he was nevertheless detested by every one
because of his impertinence and conceit. The two chiefs were polite
to him, but the clerks held him at arm's length and prevented all
companionship by means of the extreme and grotesque politeness which
they bestowed upon him. A pretty youth of twenty-two, tall and slender,
with the manners of an Englishman, a dandy in dress, curled and
perfumed, gloved and booted in the latest fashion, and twirling an
eyeglass, Benjamin de la Billardiere thought himself a charming fellow
and possessed all the vices of the world with none of its graces. He
was now looking forward impatiently to the death of his father, that
he might succeed to the title of baron. His cards were printed "le
Chevalier de la Billardiere" and on the wall of his office hung, in a
frame, his coat of arms (sable, two swords in saltire, on a chief azure
three mullets argent; with the motto; "Toujours fidele"). Possessed
with a mania for talking heraldry, he once asked the young Vicomte de
Portenduere why his arms were charged in a certain way, and drew down
upon himself the happy answer, "I did not make them." He talked of his
devotion to the monarchy and the attentions the Dauphine paid him. He
stood very well with des Lupeaulx, whom he thought his friend, and they
often breakfasted together. Bixiou posed as his mentor, and hoped to rid
the division and France of the young fool by tempting him to excesses,
and openly avowed that intention.

Such were the principal figures of La Billardiere's division of the
ministry, where also were other clerks of less account, who resembled
more or less