At last, 'scoundrel, monster, bastard,' says
he, 'are you a marquis?' ' No,' I replied, 'I am a sans-culotte.' 'Ah,
well people, you hear what he says,' he exclaims, 'he says that he is
a sans-culotte, and that is the way he greets a denunciation on the
maximum! I remove him. Let him be kicked in prison!'"[123] It is
certain that the King of Arras and Cambray is not far from a raging
fever; with such symptoms an ordinary individual would be sent to an
asylum.
Not so vain, less fond of parading his royalty, but more savage and
placed in Nantes amidst greater dangers, Carrier, under the pressure
of more somber ideas, is much more furious and constant in his
madness. Sometimes his attacks reach hallucination. "I have seen
him," says a witness, "so carried away in the tribune, in the heat of
his harangue when trying to overrule public opinion, as to cut off the
tops of the candles with his saber," as if they were so many
aristocrats' heads.[124] Another time, at table, after having
declared that France could not feed its too numerous population, and
that it was decided to cut down the excess, all nobles, magistrates,
priests, merchants, etc., he becomes excited and exclaims, "Kill,
kill!" as if he were already engaged in the work and ordering the
operation.
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