Georges Couthon

“ If Hébert had triumphed, the Convention was overthrown, the Republic hastening to the abyss; if Desmoulins and Danton had triumphed, the Convention had lost its virtue, ready to surrender the Republic to the aristocrats, the money-jobbers and the Generals. If men like Tallien and Foucher, monsters gorged with blood and rapine, triumph, France is overwhelmed in a welter of crime and infamy ... Robespierre, awake; when criminals, drunken with fury and affright, plan your death and the death of freedom! Couthon, Saint-Just, make haste; why tarry ye to denounce the plots? ”

“ Just the renegade, whose sister was married to a rich English milor; and Couthon, delicate, half-paralyzed, wheeled about in a chair, with one foot in the grave, whose devotion to the tyrant was partly made up of ambition, and wholly of genuine admiration.
At the uproarious cheering which greeted his appearance, Robespierre advanced into the open, whilst a sudden swift light of triumph darted from his narrow, pale eyes.
"And you still hesitate!" St. Just whispered excitedly in his ear. "Why, you hold the people absolutely in the hollow of your hand!" ”

“ He began to count. "There's myself Lashman, in his bunk—David Faed, the Gaffer, the Snipe, Dan Cooney ... One, two, three, four—well, but that made seven. Then who was the seventh? Was it George who had crawled out of bed and was kneeling there? Decidedly there were five kneeling. No: there was George, plain enough, in his berth, and not able to move. Then who was the stranger? Wrong again: there was no stranger. He knew all these men they were his mates. ”

“ COUTTS, THOMAS (1735–1822) , founder with his brother James of the banking house of Coutts & Co. in the Strand, was the fourth son of Lord-provost John Coutts of Edinburgh [q. v.] , and was born on 7 Sept. 1735. He was educated at the high school of Edinburgh. On the death of his brother James in 1778 he remained sole partner of the banking house in the Strand. He became the banker of George III, and of a large number of the aristocracy. He was a gentleman of wide accomplishments, and very charitable. ”

“ And for the third time that night Cooney went back.
The Gaffer leaned a little farther over the ledge, and addressed the sick man.
"George, I went to Bill's grave not six hours agone. The snow on it wasn't even disturbed. Neither beast nor man, but only God, can break up the hard earth he lies under. I tell you that, and you may lay to it. Now go to sleep."
Long Ede crouched on the frozen ridge of the hut, with his feet in the sleeping-bag, his knees drawn up, and the two guns laid across them. The creature, whatever its name, that had tried the door, was nowhere to be seen ”

“ It was now daybreak.
First was carried Robespierre, on a litter, his face tied up in a handkerchief; then came his brother, insensible, in the arms of two men; then followed the dead body of Lebas, over which they had thrown a table-cover.
Couthon, who had rolled in the mud, followed; and the procession was closed by St. Just, walking bare-headed.
“The recreant Robespierre is here!” said the President of the Convention, a man just chosen. “Shall he be brought in?”
“No, no!” cried the Conventionists. “The corpse of a tyrant can carry nothing but contagion along with it. To the scaffold!” ”

“ Coutts was not altogether sorry. Freed from the demoralizing influences of moon and close propinquity, much of his deeply rooted cynicism in regard to womankind began to reassert itself.
A week of active business with the handling of an important case quite restored the lawyer from his attack of “sea love,” and he found himself wondering how he had managed to become infected. ”

“ His twang was pronouncedly Cockney, even though it was said he had lived in Italy so many years that he had almost become an Italian. A man who is a real born Londoner can never disguise his nasal “n’s,” even though he live his life at the uttermost ends of the earth. We had both quickly detected that the stranger, though of rather slim built, was unusually muscular. And this was the man who had had those frequent secret interviews with the grave-eyed Capuchin, Fra Antonio. ”

“ Coutras clacks with mills and is musical with weirs. The spirit of the warlike king yet informs its old umber walls and toppling houses. I found it a place so fragrant with antique and with natural beauties, that my heart wept over the present human degeneracy that vulgarised it. It lies amongst the last distant swells, as it were, of the great billows of the Auvergne mountains, before those swells have rolled themselves to waste in the sombre flats of the Landes. It is the hill-slope garden on the fringe of the moor ”

“ Dictatorship! Triumvirate!' And the Salut Committee-men accuse, and all men accuse, and uproar, and impetuously acclaim. And Saint-Just is standing motionless, pale of face; Couthon ejaculating, 'Triumvir?' with a look at his paralytic legs. And Robespierre is struggling to speak, but President Thuriot is jingling the bell against him, but the Hall is sounding against him like an Æolus-Hall: and Robespierre is mounting the Tribune-steps and descending again; going and coming, like to choke with rage, terror, desperation:—and mutiny is the order of the day! ”

“ Recently there has appeared in France a book entitled Plutarch Lied. I have no doubt he did, like all mankind save George Washington, but he was truthful when he said that the man who writes his life embraces the opportunity to celebrate certain moral qualities. The quality that George M. Cohan celebrates in himself is courage. He also prides himself on his industry. He was long of courage from his birth, or at least he was before he drained the tank so lavishly. Mr. Cohan is less engaging when he tells how he achieved his success, than when he is actually achieving it on the stage. ”

“ Loud cries and calls from the Commune's Council Hall, resounded through the open door.
"Go quickly! My friends are coming!" said Robespierre, as he hastened the departure of the two women, conducting them to the threshold of the antechamber. But his friends, Lebas, Augustin Robespierre, Saint-Just, Couthon, Fleuriot-Lescot, Coffinhal, Payan, Dumas, were now entering, shutting the door sharply behind them, in a great flurry in their impatience to be alone.
"This is hardly the moment to dally with women!" ”

“ Fred announced, patting the rifle. But, he did not mean it, and Coutlass knew he did not. The English temperament does not turn readily on even the most rascally fellow beings in distress. Besides, it was an indubitable fact that we all much preferred Coutlass, with his daring record, and now a most outrageous love-affair on hand, to the other Greek or the Goanese, who were now disposed to bid for our friendship by abusing him. ”

“ The imagination no doubt refuses to see Coote displaying extraordinary refinements of courage upon the stricken field, but in the walks of peace there is sometimes sore need of sternness. Charitable as one may be, one must admit there are people who do things, impossible things ”

“ No live child has ever left La Couillard's. That's her specialty. When you see an agent, like La Couteau, for instance, taking her a child, you know at once what's in the wind. La Couteau has simply bargained that the little one shall die. It's settled in a very easy fashion: the parents give a sum of three or four hundred francs on condition that the little one shall be kept till his first communion, and you may be quite certain that he dies within a week. It's only necessary to leave a window open near him, as a nurse used to do whom my father knew. ”

“ He admitted the general accuracy of the statement made by Coutts regarding their interview; whilst he refused to give any information as to the grounds of their quarrel. He affirmed, however, that after the door of the Manor had been closed against him, he had speech with Coutts’s father, who, on hearing his complaint, had directed him to be at the house early in the morning, and promised that justice should be done him. He further admitted that it was true that he had only reached his lodgings in the village a few minutes before the first alarm of fire was raised. ”

“ While a young man he gained a name as an engineer, and by the time he had reached middle life was recognized as the best officer of that arm in the Dutch service. The prince of Orange promised him a colonelcy, but as he was remiss in fulfilling the pledge, Coehorn retired in disgust, with the intention of offering his services to the French. ”

“ Man cannot explain it. A paralytic Couthon, asking in the Jacobins, 'What hast thou done to be hanged if Counter-Revolution should arrive?' a sombre Saint-Just, not yet six-and-twenty, declaring that 'for Revolutionists there is no rest but in the tomb'; a seagreen Robespierre converted into vinegar and gall; much more an Amar and Vadier, a Collet and Billaud: to inquire what thoughts, predetermination or prevision, might be in the head of these men! Record of their thought remains not; Death and Darkness have swept it out utterly. ”

“ Count Quinnox coolly arose and excused himself with the remark that he was off to dress for dinner. He also looked at his watch, which certainly was an act that one would hardly have expected of a diplomat.
"Well, well," said Mr. Blithers profoundly. Then he looked at his own watch—and settled back in his chair, a somewhat dogged compression about his jaws. He was not the man to be thwarted. "You certainly have a cosy little place here. King," he remarked after a moment or two.
"We like it," said King, twiddling his fingers behind his back. "Humble but homelike." ”

“ Mr. Coutts, in addition to his annuity, with that characteristic spirit of true liberality which ever marked his conduct, and with that modesty which generally accompanies such feelings, made a donation of a hundred pounds, under the injunction that his name should not appear in the transaction; and Mr. Roscoe gave proofs of the sincere friendship which he entertained for the artist, by not only buying pictures to a considerable amount, but also by inducing his friends and connexions at Liverpool to make purchases. ”

“ But he took more pains with his stories if she was listening. As for her lessons, Honoria got through them by honest plodding. She never quite saw the use of them, but she liked Mr. Raymond. She learnt more steadily than either of the boys.
One day George rode over with two pairs of boxing-gloves dangling from his saddle. After lessons he and Taffy had a try with them, in a clearing behind the shrubberies where the gardener had heaped his sweepings of dry leaves to rot down for manure.
"But, look here," said George, after the first round; "you'll never learn if you hit so wild as that. ”

“ Coote might introduce him. "Lord!" he said aloud to the darkness between grinning and dismay. He figured himself going into the Emporium to buy a tie, for example, and there in the face of Buggins, Carshot, Pierce and the rest of them, meeting "my friend, Lady Punnet!" It might not end with Lady Punnet! His imagination plunged and bolted with him, galloped, took wings and soared to romantic, to poetical altitudes. . . .
Suppose some day one met Royalty. By accident, say! He soared to that! After all,—twelve hundred a year is a lift, a tremendous lift. ”

“ Mr Hadleigh advanced to meet them, and she, relinquishing the arm of Coutts, took that of his father.
‘She requires taming. Poor Phil,’ was the reflection of the practical-minded Coutts, as he turned away to bestow his attentions on beauties who would appreciate them more. ”

“ I am dressed,” said Coote, in alarm.
“You muff, you’re not in your flannels. Think of a new fellow turning up to Hall first day not in his flannels, eh, Georgie?”
“My eye!” said Georgie; “what a row there’d be!”
“Cut as hard as ever you can, and put them on. Better not show up till just as the clock strikes, in case fellows humbug you. We’ll be near the door and show you where to sit.” ”

“ No one poet represents that love so fully as Chaucer, in both its aspects. I say in both, and not in all, for such love as lent itself to picturesque treatment had then practically only two aspects, the most ideal and the most material. The maiden whose purity of heart and freedom of manners are equally natural was not only non-existent at that stage of society, but inconceivable. Emelye is, within her limits, as beautiful and touching a figure as any in poetry ”

“ Cowen sat still at the keyhole some time, then took off his boots and softly mounted his chair, and applied his eye to the peep-hole.
Cutler was lying on his stomach between the table and the bed.
Cowen came to the door on tiptoe and turned the handle gently; the door yielded.
He lost nerve for the first time in his life. What horrible shame, should the man come to his senses and see him! ”

“ His father was a small farmer, who lived at the Bush on the opposite side to Balmoral. He is the second of nine brothers,—three of whom have died—two are in Australia and New Zealand, two are living in the neighbourhood of Balmoral; and the youngest, Archie (Archiebald) is valet to our son Leopold, and is an excellent, trustworthy young man.
[33] Now, since some years, piper to Farquharson of Invercauld.
The moon rose, and was beautifully reflected on the lake, which, with its steep green hills, looked lovely. To add to the beauty, poetry, and wildness of the scene, Coutts played in the boat ”

“ The marriage was publicly announced 2 March 1815. Coutts died 24 Feb. 1822, leaving to his wife the whole of his large fortune. To his children by his first marriage she behaved with much generosity. On 16 June 1827, at her house in Stratton Street, she married William Aubrey de Vere, ninth duke of St. Albans. She died in Stratton Street, 6 Aug. 1837. She was a handsome brunette, with a figure inclining slightly to portliness, great vivacity and animal spirits, generous, ostentatious, and somewhat fiery in temper. ”