[91] The illegality of his conduct, however, was complaint made by
Arthur Arnould, to the committee, concerning the arbitrary arrest of a
number of persons. Cournet was appointed to the Prefecture in
Rigault’s stead, but the amateur policeman and informer did not
renounce work; he found the greatest pleasure, as he himself expressed
it, in acting the spy over the official spies. This man was a
well-known frequenter of the low cafés of the Quartier Latin, and his
face bore such evidences of his debauched life, that though only
twenty-eight years of age, he looked nearer forty.
[Illustration: Cournet, Member of Committee Of General Safety.]