His hair was close curled in rolls upon his temples, and elaborately powdered.  The front and cuffs of his shirt were not only scrupulously clean, but starched and ironed with the most exact care.  He wore a blue coat, a white waistcoat, and knee-breeches.  His stockings, like his shirt, were snow-white, and the silver buckles shone brightly in his shoes.  No one could have looked less like a French republican of 1793 than did Robespierre.

He had just completed a letter addressed jointly to Thurreau and Lechelle, the commissioners whom he had newly appointed to the horrid task of exterminating the royalists of La Vendee.  Santerre had undertaken this work, and had failed in it, and it was now said that he was a friend and creature of Danton’s; that he was not to be trusted as a republican; that he had a royalist bias; that it would be a good thing that his head should roll, as the heads of so many false men had rolled, under the avenging guillotine.  Poor Santerre, who, in the service of the Republic, had not shunned the infamy of presiding at the death of Louis.  He, however, contrived to keep his burly head on his strong shoulders, and to brew beer for the Directory, the Consulate, and the Empire.

Thurreau and Lechelle, it was correctly thought, would be surer hands at performing the work to be done.  They had accepted the commission with alacrity, and were now on the road to commence their duties.  That duty was to leave neither life nor property in the proscribed district.  “Let La Vendee become a wilderness, and we will re-populate it with patriots, to whom the fertility of fields, rich with the blood of traitors, shall be a deserved reward.”  Thus had Robespierre now written; and as he calmly read over, and slowly copied, his own despatch, he saw nothing in it of which he could disapprove, as a reasoning being animated with a true love of his country.  “Experience has too clearly proved to us that the offspring of slaves, who willingly kiss the rod of tyrants, will have no higher aspiration than their parents.  In allowing them to escape, we should only create difficulties for our own patriot children.  Hitherto the servants of the Convention have scotched the snake, but have not killed it; and the wounded viper has thus become more furiously venomous than before.  It is for you, citizens, to strike a death-blow to the infamy of La Vendee.  It will be your glory to assure the Convention that no royalist remains in the western provinces to disturb the equanimity of the Republic.”  Such were the sentiments he had just expressed, such the instructions he had given, calmly meditating on his duty as a ruler of his country; and when he had finished his task, and seen that no expression had escaped him of which reason or patriotism could disapprove, he again placed the paper before him, to write words of affection to the brother of his heart.