Page:Napoleon (O'Connor 1896).djvu/276

260 and which the kindly and genial nature, would at once reverse the verdict of history, and see in Robespierre the hero of mercy, and in Barras the embodiment of cruelty. There is the distinction of the aristocrat about Barras. He appears tall, shapely, erect; a haughty and hard self-confidence in his attitude. And then, that face! The mouth is large, well-shaped, as tight as a rat-trap; the nose is long, regular, distinguished; and even through the spectral black and white of an engraving, the eyes still seem to burn and stare with brilliant and steel-like glitter. It is a terrible face.

In "A Strange Story"—Bulwer Lytton's best story—there is a spectre that strikes death as it passes. It is called the Scin-læca, if I remember rightly after nearly a quarter of a century, and the doomed one shudders as it passes and strikes. Barras was the Sczz-leca of Robespierre. It was no wonder that he was awed and paralysed into a frozen silence as Barras passed.

Josephine, Barras passes to Napoleon, and he is as severe on the future husband as on the wife:

"Bonaparte, who knew of all her adventures just as well as I did, had often heard the story