“Stranger set of Cloud-Compellers the Earth never saw.”—CARLYLE: THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 1837
BERTRAND BARÈRE, b. 1755, “Anacreon of the Guillotine,” a lawyer bred in a lawyer’s family, easy going, affable, hardworking, eloquent.
JEAN-NICOLAS BILLAUD-VARENNE, b. 1756, also a lawyer and son of a lawyer, a writer and agitator, impatient, clamorous.
LAZARE CARNOT, b. 1753, army officer, engineer, mathematician, stern patriot, “Organizer of Victory.”
JEAN-MARIE COLLOT D’HERBOIS, b. 1750, actor and playwright, self-made, crude, excitable.
GEORGES COUTHON, b. 1756, lawyer, humanitarian, family man, a paralytic unable to walk.
MARIE-JEAN HÉRAULT DE SÉCHELLES, b. 1759, nobleman and aristocrat, lawyer, wit, poseur.
ROBERT LINDET, b. 1743, steady, sensible, middle aged.
PRIEUR OF THE CÔTE-D’OR (Claude-Antoine Prieur-Duvernois), b. 1763, army officer and engineer, a young man of promise.
PRIEUR OF THE MARNE (Pierre-Louis Prieur), b. 1756, lawyer.
MAXIMILIEN ROBESPIERRE, b. 1758, lawyer and son of a lawyer, introspective, self-righteous, idealistic. The “Incorruptible.”
ANDRÉ JEANBON SAINT-ANDRÉ, b. 1749, Protestant minister, one time ship’s captain, diligent, masterful.
LOUIS-ANTOINE SAINT-JUST, b. 1767, “Angel of Death,” youngest of the Twelve, law graduate, imperious, incisive.
“… the Committee of Public Safety, which was a miracle, and whose spirit still wins battles.”—JOSEPH DE MAISTRE: CONSIDÉRATIONS SUR LA FRANCE, 1797