His face was hardly to be termed prepossessing, but it certainly did not
denote the ruthless ferocity which the nature of the task he had
undertaken would require, and which he exercised in its accomplishment.
Nature had not formed him to be a monster gloating in blood; the
Republic had altered the disposition which nature had given him, and he
learnt among those with whom he had associated, to delight in the work
which they required at his hands. Before the Reign of Terror was over,
he had become one of those who most loudly called for more blood, while
blood was running in torrents on every side; it was he who demanded the
murder of the Queen, when even Robespierre was willing to save her. It
was he who declared in the Convention that the dead were the only
enemies who never returned; and yet this same man lived to publish a
pamphlet, in which he advocated the doctrine, that under no
circumstances could one human being be justified in taking the life of
another.
He was dressed in a blue dress-coat, which in spite of the heat of the
weather, was buttoned close round his body; he was rather a dandy in his
costume, for his tightly-fitted breeches were made to show the form of
his well-formed leg, and his cravat was without a wrinkle.
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