Barras, Paul François, a member of the Jacobin Club, born in Provence; “a man of heat and haste,... tall, and handsome to the eye;” voted in the National Convention for the execution of the king; took part in the siege of Toulon; put an end to the career of Robespierre and the Reign of Terror; named general-in-chief to oppose the reactionaries; employed Bonaparte to command the artillery, “he the commandant's cloak, this artillery officer the commandant;” was a member of the Directory till Bonaparte swept it away (1755‒1829).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Barrack-Room Ballads * Bar`ratry