Barerede Vieuzac

Barere de Vieuzac, Bertrand, born at Tarbes in 1755, practised at the bar in Toulouse, and was sent as a representative of the Tiers Etat to the States General and the Convention. The part he played in the National Assembly was at first mild enough, but in the Convention he joined the more violent section, voted for the execution of the king, supported Robespierre, Couthon, and St. Just in the Reign of Terror, and was a member of Le Comite du Salut Public. He somewhat severed himself from his associates before the reaction set in, but would have shared their fate had he not contrived to escape. Napoleon allowed him to return, and used him as a spy. At the Restoration he had once more to fly, but after 1830 returned from Belgium, received a small pension, and died at Paris in 1841. His fondness for dabbling in light literature and his cheerful insouciance where his own neck was not in danger, won him the title of "the Anacreon of the Guillotine," and Macaulay describes him as approaching more nearly than anyone "to the idea of consummate and universal depravity."