His face probably was a true index to his character.
Robespierre was not a cruel man; but he had none of that humanity, which
makes the shedding of blood abominable to mankind, and which, had he
possessed it, would have made his career impossible.
His hair was close curled in rolls upon his temples, and elaborately
powdered. The front and cuffs of his shirt were not only scrupulously
clean, but starched and ironed with the most exact care. He wore a blue
coat, a white waistcoat, and knee-breeches. His stockings, like his
shirt, were snow-white, and the silver buckles shone brightly in his
shoes. No one could have looked less like a French republican of 1793
than did Robespierre.
He had just completed a letter addressed jointly to Thurreau and
Lechelle, the commissioners whom he had newly appointed to the horrid
task of exterminating the royalists of La Vendee. Santerre had
undertaken this work, and had failed in it, and it was now said that he
was a friend and creature of Danton's; that he was not to be trusted as
a republican; that he had a royalist bias; that it would be a good thing
that his head should roll, as the heads of so many false men had rolled,
under the avenging guillotine.
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