several of his male and female customers as he served them
in the grocery. The citoyenne Duplay, wife of a cabinet-maker with whom
Robespierre lodged, and who looked after the affairs of that eminent
citizen, patronized, unfortunately, the Descoings establishment. She
considered the opinions of the grocer insulting to Maximilian the First.
Already displeased with the manners of Descoings, this illustrious
"tricoteuse" of the Jacobin club regarded the beauty of his wife as a
kind of aristocracy. She infused a venom of her own into the grocer's
remarks when she repeated them to her good and gentle master, and
the poor man was speedily arrested on the well-worn charge of
"accaparation."

No sooner was he put in prison, than his wife set to work to obtain his
release. But the steps she took were so ill-judged that any one hearing
her talk to the arbiters of his fate might have thought that she was in
reality seeking to get rid of him. Madame Descoings knew Bridau, one
of the secretaries of Roland, then minister of the interior,--the
right-hand man of all the ministers who succeeded each other in
that office. She put Bridau on the war-path to save her grocer. That
incorruptible official--one of the virtuous dupes who are always
admirably disinterested--was careful not to corrupt the men on whom
the fate of the poor grocer depended; on the contrary, he endeavored to
enlighten them. Enlighten people in those days! As well might he have
begged them to bring back the Bourbons. The Girondist minister, who was
then contending against Robespierre, said to his secretary, "Why do you
meddle in the matter?" and all others to whom the worthy Bridau appealed
made the same atrocious reply: "Why do you meddle?" Bridau then sagely
advised Madame Descoings to keep quiet and await events. But instead of
conciliating Robespierre's housekeeper, she fretted and fumed against
that informer, and even complained to a member of the Convention,
who, trembling for himself, replied hastily, "I will speak of it to
Robespierre." The handsome petitioner put faith in this promise, which
the other carefully forgot. A few loaves of sugar, or a bottle or two of
good liqueur, given to the citoyenne Duplay would have saved Descoings.

This little mishap proves that in revolutionary times it is quite
as dangerous to employ honest men as scoundrels; we should rely on
ourselves alone. Descoings perished; but he had the glory of going to
the scaffold with Andre C