Cruelty was no such melancholy business to be gone about with
an austere brow and a whining tone; it was a recreation, fitly
accompanied by singing and laughing. In truth, Robespierre and Barere
might be well compared to the two renowned hangmen of Louis the
Eleventh. They were alike insensible of pity, alike bent on havoc. But,
while they murdered, one of them frowned and canted, the other grinned
and joked. For our own part, we prefer _Jean qui pleure_ to _Jean qui
rit_.

In the midst of the funeral gloom which overhung Paris, a gayety
stranger and more ghastly than the horrors of the prison and the
scaffold distinguished the dwelling of Barere. Every morning a crowd of
suitors assembled to implore his protection. He came forth in his rich
dressing-gown, went round the antechamber, dispensed smiles and promises
among the obsequious crowd, addressed himself with peculiar animation to
every handsome woman who appeared in the circle, and complimented her in
the florid style of Gascony on the bloom of her cheeks and the lustre of
her eyes. When he had enjoyed the fear and anxiety of his suppliants he
dismissed them, and flung all their memorials unread into the fire. This
was the best way, he conceived, to prevent arrears of business from
accumulating. Here he was only an imitator. Cardinal Dubois had been in
the habit of clearing his table of papers in the same way. Nor was this
the only point in which we could point out a resemblance between the
worst statesman of the monarchy and the worst statesman of the
republic.

Of Barere's peculiar vein of pleasantry a notion may be formed from an
anecdote which one of his intimate associates, a juror of the
Revolutionary Tribunal, has related. A courtesan who bore a conspicuous
part in the orgies of Clichy implored Barere to use his power against a
headdress which did not suit her style of face, and which a rival
beauty was trying to bring into fashion. One of the magistrates
of the capital was summoned and received the necessary orders.
Aristocracy, Barere said, was again rearing its front. These new wigs
were counter-revolutionary. He had reason to know that they were made
out of the long fair hair of handsome aristocrats who had died by the
national chopper. Every lady who adorned herself with the relics of
criminals might justly be suspected of incivism. This ridiculous lie
imposed on the authorities of Paris. Female citizens were solemnly
warned against the obnoxious rin