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 usually is among country-people, showed teeth that were strong and white as almonds, but irregular.