Some, who are shrewd, think of the more substantial and look out for
the future. Foremost among these is Tallien, the king of robbers, but
prodigal, whose pockets, full of holes, are only filled to be at once
emptied; Javogues, who makes the most of Montbrison; Rovère, who, for
eighty thousand francs in assignats, has an estate adjudged to him worth
five hundred thousand francs in coin; Fouché, who, in Nièvre, begins to
amass the twelve or fourteen millions which he secures later on;[32144]
and so many others, who were either ruined or impoverished previous to
the outbreak of the Revolution, and who are rich when it ends: Barras
with his domain of Gros Bois; André Dumont, with the Hotel de Plouy, its
magnificent furniture, and an estate worth four hundred thousand livres;
Merlin de Thionville, with his country-houses, equipages, and domain
of Mont-Valérien, and other domains; Salicetti, Reubell, Rousselin,
Chateauneuf-Randon, and the rest of the gluttonous and corrupted members
of the Directory. Without mentioning the taxes and confiscations of
which they render no account, they have, for their hoard, the ransoms
offered underhandedly by "suspects" and their families; what is more
convenient?[32145] And all the more, because the Committee of General
Security, even when informed, let things take their course: to prosecute
"Montagnards," would be "making the Revolution take a step backward."
One is bound to humor useful servants who have such hard work, like
that of the September killings, to do. Irregularities, as with these
September people, must be overlooked; it is necessary to allow them a
few perquisites and give them gratuities.[32146]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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