A youth of the name of Julien, particularly in the confidence of Robespierre, was then sent to Bourdeaux, not officially as his successor, but as a spy, to collect information concerning him, as well as to watch the operations of other missionaries, and prevent their imitating Tallien’s schemes of personal advantage, at the expence of scandalizing the republic by an appearance of lenity.—­The disastrous state of Lyons, the persecutions of Carrier, the conflagrations of Maignet, and the crimes of various other Deputies, had obliterated the minor revolutionisms of Tallien:* The citizens of Bourdeaux spoke of him without horror, which in these times was equal to eulogium; and Julien transmitted such accounts of his conduct to Robespierre,** as were equally alarming to the jealousy of his spirit, and repugnant to the cruelty of his principles.

* It was Tallien’s boast to have guillotined only aristocrats, and of this part of his merit I am willing to leave him in possession.  At Toulon he was charged with the punishment of those who had given up the town to the English; but finding, as he alledged, nearly all the inhabitants involved, he selected about two hundred of the richest, and that the horrid business might wear an appearance of regularity, the patriots, that is, the most notorious Jacobins, were ordered to give their opinion on the guilt of these victims, who were brought out into an open field for that purpose.  With such judges the sentence was soon passed, and a fusillade took place on the spot.—­It was on this occasion that Tallien made particular boast of his humanity; and in the same publication where he relates the circumstance, he exposes the “atrocious conduct” of the English at the surrender of Toulon.  The cruelty of these barbarians not being sufficiently gratified by dispatching the patriots the shortest way, they hung up many of them by their chins on hooks at the shambles, and left them to die at their leisure.—­See “Mitraillades, Fusillades,” a recriminating pamphlet, addressed by Tallien to Collot d’Herbois.—­The title alludes to Collot’s exploits at Lyons.

** It is not out of the usual course of things that Tallien’s moderation at Bourdeaux might have been profitable; and the wife or mistress of a Deputy was, on such occasions, a useful medium, through which the grateful offerings of a rich and favoured aristocrat might be conveyed, without committing the legislative reputation.—­The following passage from Julien’s correspondence with Robespierre seems to allude to some little arrangements of this nature: 

“I think it my duty to transmit you an extract from a letter of Tallien’s, [Which had been intercepted.] to the National Club.—­It coincides with the departure of La Fontenay, whom the Committee of General Safety have doubtless had arrested.  I find some very curious political details regarding her; and Bourdeaux seems to have been, until this moment, a labyrinth