India 2001 books

Before the
Revolution, Barrere had been a wealthy aristocrat.
Santerre, who sat next to him, was in every respect unlike the ci-devant
nobleman. He was a large, rough, burly man, about forty years of age;
his brown hair was long and uncombed, his face was coarse and hot, and
the perspiration was even now running down it, though drinking and
smoking was at present his hardest work; his lips were thick and
sensual, and his face was surrounded by huge whiskers, which made him
look uncouth and savage; his cravat was thrown off, and his shirt was
open at the neck, so as to show his brown throat and brawny chest; a
huge horse pistol lay before him close to his glass, and a still huger
sword stood up against his chair. He was drinking hard and talking
loudly, and was evidently quite at ease with his company; he was as
completely at home in the Mayor's parlour at Angers, as when rushing
into the Tuilleries at the head of his fellow citizens from the faubourg
St. Antoine.
Santerre was of Flemish descent, and by trade a brewer.


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