"And who is citizen Barras?"
"Only a deputy from the Var, who has served in India, and learned there to imitate the habits of the Nabobs. At the Convention he sits with the Mountain. At all events; it looks as if they were going to shoot all the population, and raze the town."
"Let them destroy and shoot! The sooner they do it, the quicker they will get through," said Pichegru. "Faith! I prefer our former good God to the modern Supreme Being who permits such horrors."
"And what do they say of my cousin Buonaparte?"
"They say that he is a young artillery officer," continued citizen Fenouillot, "and a friend of young Robespierre."
"Come, general," said Abatucci, "if he is on such good terms with the Jacobins as that, he will make his way and protect us in the bargain."
"Speaking of protection," said citizen Fenouillot, "is what the Duc de Bourbon told me when he was eulogizing you true?"
"Very kind of the Duc de Bourbon," said Pichegru, laughing. "What did he tell you?"
"That it was his father, the Prince de Condé, to whom you owed your first promotion."
"Yes," replied Pichegru.