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In this profession of slaughtering, destructive instincts, long
repressed by civilization, become aroused. His feline physiognomy, at
first "that of a domestic cat, restless but mild, changes into the
savage appearance of the wildcat, and close to the ferocious exterior
of the tiger. In the Constituent Assembly he speaks with a whine, in
the Convention he froths at the mouth."[146] The monotonous drone of
a stiff sub-professor changes into the personal accent of furious
passion; he hisses and grinds his teeth;[147] Sometimes, on a change
of scene, he affects to shed tears.[148] But his wildest outbursts
are less alarming than his affected sensibility. The festering
grudges, corrosive envies and bitter scheming which have accumulated
in his breast are astonishing. The gall bladder is full, and the
extravasated gall overflows on the dead. He never tires of re-
executing his guillotined adversaries, the Girondists, Chaumette,
H?bert and especially Danton,[149] probably because Danton was the
active agent in the Revolution of which he was simply the incapable
pedagogue; he vents his posthumous hatred on this still warm corpse in
artful insinuations and obvious misrepresentations.
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