ely different views as to the right way of conducting the
business of the State, but not one of them all preserved the smallest
vestige of Christian beliefs. Feuillants, Constitutionals, Girondists,
all, like Brotteaux, considered the Christians' God a very bad thing for
themselves and an excellent one for the people; as for the Jacobins,
they were for installing in the place of Jehovah a Jacobin god, anxious
to refer the dispensation of Jacobinism on earth to a higher source. But
as they could not conceive, either one or the other, of anybody being so
absurd as to believe in any revealed religion, seeing that the Pere
Longuemare was no fool, they took him to be a knave. By way, no doubt,
of preparing for martyrdom, he made confession of faith at every
opportunity, and the more sincerity he displayed, the more like an
impostor he seemed.

In vain Brotteaux stood surety for the monk's good faith; Brotteaux
himself was reputed to believe only a part of what he said. His ideas
were too singular not to appear affected and satisfied nobody entirely.
He dubbed Jean-Jacques a dull, paltry rascal. Voltaire, on the other
hand, he accounted among the divinely-gifted men, though not on the
same level as the amiable Helvetius, or Diderot, or the Baron d'Holbach.
In his opinion the greatest genius of the century was Boulanger. He also
thought highly of the astronomer Lalande and of Dupuis, author of a
_Memoir on the origin of the Constellations_.

The wits of the company made a thousand jokes at the poor Barnabite's
expense, the point of which he never saw; his simplicity saved him from
every pitfall. To drown the suspense that racked them and escape the
torments of idleness, the prisoners played at draughts, cards and
backgammon. No instrument of music was allowed. After supper they would
sing, or recite verses. Voltaire's _La Pucelle_ brought a little
cheerfulness to these aching hearts, and the company never wearied of
hearing the telling passages repeated. But, unable to distract their
thoughts from the appalling vision that always loomed before their
mind's eye, they strove sometimes to make a diversion of it, and in the
chamber of the eighteen beds, before turning in for the night, they
would play the game of the Revolutionary Tribunal. The parts were
distributed according to tastes and aptitudes. While some represented
the judges and prosecutor, others were the accused or the witnesses,
others again the headsman and his men.