Contrast this with this the small, powerful, triumphant group of
Jacobins which, having understood how to place themselves in the good
places, is determined to stay there at any cost. - About ten o'clock
in the morning,[152] Cambac?r?s, president of the Committee of Public
Safety, is seen entering its hall in the Pavillon de l'Egalit?. He is
a large, cautious and shrewd personage who will, later on, become
arch-chancellor of the Empire and famous for his epicurean inventions
and other peculiar tastes revived from antiquity. Scarcely seated, he
orders an ample pat-au-feu to be placed on the chimney hearth and, on
the table, "fine wine and fine white bread; three articles," says a
guest, " not to be found elsewhere in all Paris." Between twelve and
two o'clock, his colleagues enter the room in turn, take a plate of
soup and a slice of meat, swallow some wine, and then proceed, each to
his bureau, to receive his coterie, giving this one an office and
compelling another to pay up, looking all the time after his own
special interests. At this moment, especially, towards the close of
the Convention, there are no public interests, all interests being
private and personal.
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