- In the mean time, the deputy in charge of
provisions, Roux de la Haute Marne, an unfrocked Benedictine, formerly
a terrorist in the provinces, subsequently the prot?g? and employee of
Fouch?, with whom he is to be associated in the police department,
keeps the throng of women in check which daily resorts to the
Tuileries to beg for bread. He is well adapted for this duty, being
tall, chubby, ornamental, and with vigorous lungs. He has taken his
office in the right place, in the attic of the palace, at the top of
long, narrow and steep stairs, so that the line of women stretching up
between the two walls, piled one above the other, necessarily becomes
immovable. With the exception of the two or three at the front, no
one has her hands free to grab the haranguer by the throat and close
the oratorical stop-cock. He can spout his tirades accordingly with
impunity, and for an indefinite time. On one occasion, his sonorous
jabber rattles away uninterruptedly from the top to the bottom of the
staircase, from nine o'clock in the morning to five o'clock in the
afternoon. Under such a voluble shower, his hearers become weary and
end by going home. - About nine or ten o'clock in the evening, the
Committee of Public Safety reassembles, but not to discuss business.
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