in their application to character, but also in relation to the
destinies of life. There is such a thing as prophetic physiognomy. If
it were possible (and such a vital statistic would be of value to
society) to obtain exact likenesses of those who perish on the
scaffold, the science of Lavatar and also that of Gall would prove
unmistakably that the heads of all such persons, even those who are
innocent, show prophetic signs. Yes, fate sets its mark on the faces
of those who are doomed to die a violent death of any kind. Now, this
sign, this seal, visible to the eye of an observer, was imprinted on
the expressive face of the man with the rifled carbine. Short and
stout, abrupt and active in his motions as a monkey, though calm in
temperament, Michu had a white face injected with blood, and features
set close together like those of a Tartar,--a likeness to which his
crinkled red hair conveyed a sinister expression. His eyes, clear and
yellow as those of a tiger, showed depths behind them in which the
glance of whoever examined the man might lose itself and never find
either warmth or motion. Fixed, luminous, and rigid, those eyes
terrified whoever gazed into them. The singular contrast between the
immobility of the eyes and the activity of the body increased the
chilling impression conveyed by a first sight of Michu. Action, always
prompt in this man, was the outcome of a single thought; just as the
life of animals is, without reflection, the outcome of instinct. Since
1793 he had trimmed his red beard to the shape of a fan. Even if he
had not been (as he was during the Terror) president of a club of
Jacobins, this peculiarity of his head would in itself have made him
terrible to behold. His Socratic face with its blunt nose was
surmounted by a fine forehead, so projecting, however, that it
overhung the rest of the features. The ears, well detached from the
head, had the sort of mobility which we find in those of wild animals,
which are ever on the qui-vive. The mouth, half-open, as the custom