Such being the argument, the jacquerie breaks out afresh: in truth,

it is permanent and universal. Just as in a body in which some of the

elements of its vital substance are affected by an organic disease, the

evil is apparent in the parts which seem to be sound: even where as yet

no outbreak has occurred, one is imminent; constant anxiety, a profound

restlessness, a low fever, denote its presence. Here, the debtor does

not pay, and the creditor is afraid to prosecute him. In other places

isolated eruptions occur. At Auxon,[3259] on an estate spared by the

great jacquerie of July, 1789, the woods are ravaged, and the peasants,

enraged at being denounced by the keepers, march to the chateau, which

is occupied by an old man and a child; everybody belonging to the

village is there, men and women; they hew down the barricaded door with

their axes, and fire on the neighbors who come to the assistance of

its inmates.--In other places, in the districts of Saint-Étienne and

Montbrison, "the trees belonging to the proprietors are carried

away with impunity, and the walls of their grounds and terraces are

demolished, the complainants being threatened with death or with

the sight of the destruction of their dwellings." Near Paris, around

Montargis, Nemours, and Fontainebleau, a number of parishes refuse

to pay the tithes and ground-rent (champart) which the Assembly has

a second time sanctioned; gibbets are erected and the collectors are

threatened with hanging, while, in the neighborhood of Tonnerre, a

mob of debtors fire upon the body of police which comes to enforce the

claims.--Near Amiens, the Comtesse de la Mire,[3260] on her estate of

Davencourt, is visited by the municipal authorities of the village, who

request her to renounce her right to ground-rent (champart) and thirds

(tiers). She refuses and they insist, and she refuses again, when they

inform her that "some misfortune will happen to her." In effect, two

of the municipal officers cause the tocsin to be rung, and the whole

village rushes to arms. One of the domestics has an arm broken by a

ball, and for three hours the countess and her two children are subject

to the grossest insults and to blows: she is forced to sign a paper

which she is not allowed to read, and, in warding off the stroke of

a saber, her arm is cleft from the elbow to the wrist; the chateau

is pillaged, and she owes her escape to the zeal of some of her

servants.--Large eruptions take place at the same time over entire

provinces; one succeeds the other almost without interruption, the fever

encroaching on parts which were supposed to be cured, and to such an

extent that the virulent ulcers finally combine and form one over the

whole surface of the social body.

By the end of December, 1789, the chronic fermentation comes to a head

in Brittany. Imagination, as usual, has forged a plot, and, as the

people say, if they make an attack it is in their own defense.--A report

spreads[3261] that M. de Goyon, near Lamballe, has assembled in his

chateau a number of gentlemen and six hundred soldiers. The mayor

and National Guard of Lamballe immediately depart in force; they find

everything tranquil there, and no company but two or three friends,

and no other arms than a few fowling-pieces.--The impulse, however, is

given, and, on the 15th of January, the great federation of Pontivy has

excited the wildest enthusiasm. The people drink, sing, and shout in

honor of the new decrees before armed peasants who do not comprehend the

French tongue, still less legal terms, and who, on their return home,

arguing with each other in bas-breton, interpret the law in a peculiar

way. "A decree of the Assembly, in their eyes, is a decree of arrest"

and as the principal decrees of the Assembly are issued against the

nobles, they are so many decrees of arrest against them.--Some days

after this, about the end of January, during the whole of February, and

down to the month of April, the execution of this theory is tumultuously

carried out by mobs of villagers and vagabonds around Nantes,

Auray, Redon, Dinan, Ploërmel, Rennes, Guingamp, and other villages.

Everywhere, writes the Mayor of Nantes,[3262] "the country-people

believe that in burning deeds and contracts they get rid of their debts;

the very best of them concur in this belief," or let things take

their course; the excesses are enormous, because many gratify "special

animosities, and all are heated with wine.--At Beuvres, "the peasants

and vassals of the manor, after burning title-deeds, establish

themselves in the chateau, and threaten to fire it if other papers,

which they allege are concealed there, are not surrendered." Near Redon

the Abbey of Saint-Sauveur is reduced to ashes. Redon is menaced, and

Ploërmel almost besieged. At the end of a month thirty-seven chateaux

are enumerated as attacked: twenty-five in which the title-deeds are

burnt, and twelve in which the proprietors are obliged to sign an

abandonment of their rights. Two chateaux which began to burn are saved

by the National Guard. That of Bois-au-Voyer is entirely consumed,

and several have been sacked. By way of addition, "more than fifteen

procureurs-fiscaux, clerks, notaries, and officers of seignorial courts

have been plundered or burnt," while proprietors take refuge in the

towns because the country is now uninhabitable for them.

A second tumor makes its appearance at the same time at another

point.[3263] It showed itself in Lower Limousin in the beginning of

January. From thence the purulent inflammation spreads to Quercy,

Upper Languedoc, Perigord, and Rouergue, and in February from Tulle to

Montauban, and from Agen to Périgueux and Cahors, extending over three

departments.--Then, also, expectancy is the creator, according to rule,

of its own object. By dint of longing for a law for the suppression

of all claims, it is imagined that it is passed, and the statement

is current that "the King and the National Assembly have ordered

deputations to set up the maypole[3264] and to 'light up' the

chateaux."--Moreover, and always in accordance with current practice,

bandits, people without occupation, take the lead of the furious crowd

and manage things their own way. As soon as a band is formed it arrests

all the peaceable people it can find on the roads, in the fields, and in

isolated farmhouses, and takes good care to put them in front in case

of blows.--These miscreants add terror to compulsion. They erect gibbets

for any one that pays casual duties or annual dues, while the parishes

of Quercy threaten their neighbors of Perigord with fire and sword in

a week's time if they do not do in Perigord as they have done in

Quercy.--The tocsin rings, the drums beat, and "the ceremony" is

performed from commune to commune. The keys of the church are forcibly

taken from the curé the seats are burned, and, frequently, the woodwork

marked with the seigneur's arms. They march to the seigneur's mansion,

tear down his weathercocks, and compel him to furnish his finest tree,

together with feathers and ribbons with which to deck it, without

omitting the three measures which he uses in the collection of his dues

in grain or flour. The maypole is planted in the village square, and the

weathercocks, ribbons, and feathers are attached to its top, together

with the three measures and this inscription, "By order of the King and

National Assembly, the final quittance for all rentals." When this

is done it is evident that the seigneur, who no longer possesses

weathercocks, or a seat in the church, or measures to rate his dues by,

is no longer a seigneur, and can no longer put forth claims of any kind.

Huzzahs and acclamations accordingly burst forth, and there is a revel

and an orgy on the public square. All who can pay--the seigneur, the

curé, and the rich--are put under contribution for the festival, while

the people eat and drink "without any interval of sobriety."--In this

condition, being armed, they strike, and when resistance is offered,

they burn. In Agénois, a chateau belonging to M. de Lameth, and another

of M. d'Aiguillon; in Upper Languedoc, that of M. de Bournazel, and in

Perigord that of M. de Bar, are burnt down:

M. de Bar is almost beaten to death, while six others are killed

in Quercy. A number of chateaux in the environs of Montauban and in

Limousin are assaulted with firearms, and several are pillaged.--Bands

of twelve hundred men swarm the country; "they have a spite against

every estate;" they redress wrongs; "they try over again cases

disposed of thirty years ago, and give judgments which they put into

execution."--If anybody fails to conform to the new code he is punished,

and to the advantage of the new sovereigns. In Agénois, a gentleman

having paid the rent which was associated with his fief the people take

his receipt from him, mulct him in a sum equal to that which he paid,

and come under his windows to spend the money on good cheer, in triumph

and with derision.

Many of the National Guards who still possess some degree of energy,

several of the municipalities which still preserve some love of order,

and a number of the resident gentry, employ their arms against these

excited swarms of brutal usurpers. Some of the ruffians, taken in the

act, are judged somewhat after the fashion of a drum-head court-martial,

and immediately executed as examples. Everybody in the country sees

that the peril to society is great and urgent, and that if such acts go

unpunished, there will be no such thing as law and property in

France. The Bordeaux parliament, moreover, insists upon prosecutions.

Eighty-three boroughs and cities sign addresses, and send a special

deputation to the National Assembly to urge on prosecutions already

commenced, the punishment of criminals under arrest, and, above all,

the maintenance of the prévôtés.[3265] In reply to this, the Assembly

inflicts upon the parliament of Bordeaux its disapprobation in the

rudest manner, and enters upon the demolition of every judicial

corporation.[3266] After this, the execution of all prévotal decisions

is adjourned. A few months later the Assembly will oblige the King to

declare that the proceedings begun against the jacquerie of Brittany

shall be regarded as null and void, and that the arrested insurgents

shall be set free. For repressive purposes, it dispatches a sentimental

exhortation to the French people, consisting of twelve pages of literary

insipidity, which Florian might have composed for his Estilles and

his Nemorins.[3267]--New conflagrations, as an inevitable consequence,

kindle around live coals which have been imperfectly extinguished. In

the district of Saintes,[3268] M. Dupaty, counselor of the parliament of

Bordeaux, after having exhausted mild resources, and having concluded

by issuing writs against those of his tenantry who would not pay their

rents, the parish of Saint-Thomas de Cosnac, combined with five or six

others, puts itself in motion and assails his two chateaux of Bois-Roche

and Saint-George-des-Agouts; these are plundered and then set on fire,

his son escaping through a volley of musket-balls. They visit Martin,

the notary and steward, in the same fashion; his furniture is pillaged

and his money is taken, and "his daughter undergoes the most frightful

outrages." Another detachment pushes on to the house of-the Marquis

de Cumont, and forces him, under the penalty of having his house burnt

down, to give a discharge for all the claims he has upon them. At the

head of these incendiaries are the municipal officers of Saint-Thomas,

except the mayor, who has taken to flight.

The electoral system organized by the Constituent Assembly is beginning

to take effect. "Almost everywhere," writes the royal commissioner, "the

large proprietors have been eliminated, and the offices have been filled

by men who strictly fulfill the conditions of eligibility. The result

is a sort of rage of the petty rich to annoy those who enjoy large

heritages."--Six months later, the National Guards and village

authorities in this same department at Aujean, Migron, and Varaise,

decide that no more tithes, agriers or champarts, nor any of the dues

which are retained, shall be paid. In vain does the department annul the

decision, and send its commissioners, gendarmes, and law-officers. The

commissioners are driven away, and the officers and gendarmes are fired

upon; the vice-president of the district, who was on his way to make his

report to the department, is seized on the road and forced to give in

his resignation. Seven parishes have coalesced with Aujean and ten

with Migron; Varaise has sounded the tocsin, and the villages for four

leagues round have risen; fifteen hundred men, armed with guns, scythes,

hatchets and pitchforks, lend their aid. The object is to set free

the principal leader at Varaise, one Planche, who was arrested, and

to punish the mayor of Varaise, Latierce, who is suspected of having

denounced Planche. Latierce is unmercifully beaten, and "forced to

undergo a thousand torments during thirty hours;" then they set out

with him to Saint-Jean-d'Angely, and demand the release of Planche. The

municipality at first refuses, but finally consents on the condition

that Latierce be given up in exchange for him. Planche, consequently, is

set at liberty and welcomed with shouts of triumph. Latierce, however,

is not given up; on the contrary, he is tormented for an hour and then

massacred, while the directory of the district, which is less submissive

than the municipal body, is forced to fly.--Symptoms of this kind are

not to be mistaken, and similar ones exist in Brittany. It is evident

that the minds of the people are permanently in revolt. Instead of the

social abscess being relieved by the discharge, it is always filling

up and getting more inflamed. It will burst a second time in the same

places; in 1791 as in 1790, the jacquerie spreads throughout Brittany as

it has spread over Limousin.

This is because the determination of the peasant is of another nature

than ours, his will being more firm and tenacious. When an idea obtains

a hold on him it takes root in an obscure and profound conviction upon

which neither discussion nor argument have any effect; once planted,

it vegetates according to his notions, not according to ours, and no

legislative text, no judicial verdict, no administrative remonstrance

can change in any respect the fruit it produces. This fruit, developed

during centuries, is the feeling of an excessive plunder, and,

consequently, the need of an absolute release. Too much having been

paid to everybody, the peasant now is not disposed to pay anything to

anybody, and this idea, vainly repressed, always rises up in the manner

of an instinct.--In the month of January, 1791,[3269] bands again

form in Brittany, owing to the proprietors of the ancient fiefs having

insisted on the payment of their rents. At first the coalesced parishes

refuse to pay the stewards, and after this the rustic National Guards

enter the chateaux to constrain the proprietors. Generally, it is the

commander of the National Guard, and sometimes the communal attorney,

who dictates to the lord of the manor the renunciation of his claims;

they oblige him, moreover, to sign notes for the benefit of the parish,

or for that of various private individuals. This is considered by them

to be compensation for damages; all feudal dues being abolished, he must

return what he received from them during the past year, and as they have

been put to inconvenience he must indemnify them by "paying them for

their time and journey." Such are the operations of two of the principal

bands, one of them numbering fifteen hundred men, around Dinan and St.

Malo; for greater security they burn title-deeds in the chateaux of

Saint-Tual, Besso, Beaumanoir, La Rivière, La Bellière, Chateauneuf,

Chenay, Chausavoir, Tourdelon, and Chalonge; and as a climax they set

fire to Chateauneuf just before the arrival of the regular troops.--In

the beginning, a dim conception of legal and social order seems to be

floating in their brains; at Saint-Tual, before taking 2,000 livres from

the steward, they oblige the mayor to give them his consent in writing;

at Yvignac, their chief, called upon to show the authority under which

he acted, declares that "he is authorized by the general will of the

populace of the nation."[3270]--But when, at the end of a month, they

are beaten by the regular troops, made furious by the blows given and

taken, and excited by the weakness of the municipal authorities who

release their prisoners, they then become bandits of the worst species.

During the night of the 22nd of February, the chateau of Villefranche,

three leagues from Malestroit, is attacked. Thirty-two rascals with

their faces masked, and led by a chief in the national uniform, break

open the door. The domestics are strangled. The proprietor, M. de la

Bourdonnaie, an old man, with his wife aged sixty, are half killed by

blows and tied fast to their bed, and after this a fire is applied to

their feet and they are warmed (chauffé). In the meantime the plate,

linen, stuffs, jewelry, two thousand francs in silver, and even watches,

buckles, and rings,--everything is pillaged, piled on the backs of

the eleven horses in the stables, and carried off.--When property is

concerned, one sort of outrage provokes another, the narrow cupidity

of the lease-holder being completed by the unlimited rapacity of the

brigand.

Meanwhile, in the south-western provinces, the same causes have produced

the same results; and towards the end of autumn, when the crops are

gathered in and the proprietors demand their dues in money or in

produce, the peasant, immovably fixed in his idea, again refuses.[3271]

In his eyes, any law that may be against him is not that of the

National Assembly, but of the so-called seigneurs, who have extorted or

manufactured it; and therefore it is null. The department and district

administrators may promulgate it as much as they please: it does not

concern him, and if the opportunity occurs, he knows how to make them

smart for it. The village National Guards, who are lease-holders like

himself, side with him, and instead of repressing him give him their

support. As a commencement, he replants the maypoles, as a sign of

emancipation, and erects the gibbet by way of a threat.--In the district

of Gourdon, the regulars and the police having been sent to put them

down, the tocsin is at once sounded: a crowd of peasants, amounting to

four or five thousand, arrives from every surrounding parish, armed with

scythes and guns; the soldiers, forming a body of one hundred, retire

into a church, where they capitulate after a siege of twenty-four hours,

being obliged to give the names of the proprietors who demanded their

intervention of the district, and who are Messrs. Hébray, de Fontange,

and many others. All their houses are destroyed from top to bottom,

and they effect their escape in order not to be hung. The chateaux of

Repaire and Salviat are burned. At the expiration of eight days Quercy

is in flames and thirty chateaux are destroyed.--The leader of a band

of rustic National Guards, Joseph Linard, at the head of a village

army, penetrates into Gourdon, installs himself in the Hôtel-de-Ville,

declares himself the people's protector against the directory of the

district, writes to the department in the name of his "companions in

arms," and vaunts his patriotism. Meanwhile he commands as a conqueror,

throws open the prisons, and promises that, if the regular troops

and police be sent off; he and his companions will withdraw in good

order.--This species of tumultuous authority, however, instituted by

acclamation for attack, is powerless for resistance. Scarcely has Linard

retired when savagery is let loose. "A price is set upon the heads

of the administrators; their houses are the first devastated; all the

houses of wealthy citizens are pillaged; and the same is the case

with all chateaux and country habitations which display any signs of

luxury."--Fifteen gentlemen, assembled together at the house of M.

d'Escayrac, in Castel, appeal to all good citizens to march to the

assistance of the proprietors who may be attacked in this jacquerie,

which is spreading everywhere;[3272] but there are too few proprietors

in the country, and none of the towns have too many of them for their

own protection. M. d'Escayrac, after a few skirmishes, abandoned by the

municipal officers of his village, and wounded, withdraws to the house

of the Comte de Clarac, a major-general, in Languedoc. Here, too, the

chateau, is surrounded,[3273] blockaded, and besieged by the local

National Guard. M. de Clarac descends and tries to hold a parley with

the attacking party, and is fired upon. He goes back inside and throws

money out of the window; the money is gathered up, and he is again fired

upon. The chateau is set on fire, and M. d'Escayrac receives five shots,

and is killed. M. de Clarac, with another person, having taken refuge in

a subterranean vault, are taken out almost stifled the next morning but

one by the National Guard of the vicinity, who conduct them to Toulouse,

where they are kept in prison and where the public prosecutor takes

proceedings against them. The chateau of Bagat, near Montouq, is

demolished at the same time. The abbey of Espagnac, near Figeac, is

assaulted with fire-arms; the abbess is forced to refund all rents she

has collected, and to restore four thousand livres for the expenses of a

trial which the convent had gained twenty years before.

After such successes, the extension of the revolt is inevitable; and

at the end of some weeks and months it becomes permanent in the three

neighboring departments.--In Creuse,[3274] the judges are threatened

with death if they order the payment of seignorial dues, and the same

fate awaits all proprietors who claim their rents. In many places, and

especially in the mountains, the peasants, "considering that they form

the nation, and that clerical possessions are national," want to have

these divided amongst themselves, instead of their being sold. Fifty

parishes around La Souterraine receive incendiary letters inviting them

to come in arms to the town, in order to secure by force, and by staking

their lives, the production of all titles to rentals. The peasants, in a

circle of eight leagues, are all stirred up by the sound of the tocsin,

and preceded by the municipal officers in their scarves; there are four

thousand of them, and they drag with them a wagon full of arms: this is

for the revision and re-constitution of the ownership of the soil.--In

Dordogne,[3275] self-appointed arbitrators interpose imperiously between

the proprietor and the small farmer, at the time of harvest, to prevent

the proprietor from claiming, and the farmer from paying, the tithes or

the réve;[3276] any agreement to this end is forbidden; whoever shall

transgress the new order of things, proprietor or farmer, shall be hung.

Accordingly, the rural militia in the districts of Bergerac, Excideuil,

Ribérac, Mucidan, Montignac, and Perigueux, led by the municipal

officers, go from commune to commune in order to force the proprietors

to sign an act of withdrawal; and these visits "are always accompanied

with robberies, outrages, and ill-treatment from which there is no

escape but in absolute submission." Moreover, "they demand the abolition

of every species of tax and the partition of the soil. "--It is

impossible for "proprietors moderately rich" to remain in the country;

on all sides they take refuge in Perigueux, and there, organizing in

companies, along with the gendarmerie and the National Guard of the

town, overrun the cantons to restore order. But there is no way of

persuading the peasantry that it is order which they wish to restore.

With that stubbornness of the imagination which no obstacle arrests,

and which, like a vigorous spring, always finds some outlet, the people

declare that "the gendarmes and National Guard" who come to restrain

them "are priests and gentlemen in disguise."--The new theories,

moreover, have struck down to the lowest depths; and nothing is easier

than to draw from them the abolition of debts, and even the agrarian

law. At Ribérac, which is invaded by the people of the neighboring

parishes, a village tailor, taking the catechism of the Constitution

from his pocket, argues with the procureur-syndic, and proves to him

that the insurgents are only exercising the rights of man. The book

states, in the first place, "that Frenchmen are equals and brethren,

and that they should give each other aid;" and that "the masters

should share with their fellows, especially this year, which is one of

scarcity." In the next place, it is written that "all property belongs

to the nation," and that is the reason why "it has taken the possessions

of the Church." Now, all Frenchmen compose the nation, and the

conclusion is clearly apparent. Since, in the eyes of the tailor, the

property of individual Frenchmen belongs to all the French, he, the

tailor, has a right to at least the quota which belongs to him.--One

travels fast and far on this downhill road, for every mob considers

that this means immediate enjoyment, and enjoyment according to its own

ideas. There is no care for neighbors or for consequences, even when

imminent and physical, and in twenty places the confiscated property

perishes in the hands of the usurpers.

This voluntary destruction of property can be best observed in the

third department, that of Corrèze.[3277] Not only have the peasants here

refused to pay rents from the beginning of the Revolution; not only have

they "planted maypoles, supplied with iron hooks, to hang the first

one that dared to claim or to pay them;" not only are violent acts of

every description committed "by entire communes," "the National Guards

of the small communes participating in them;" not only do the culprits,

whose arrest is ordered, remain at liberty, while "nothing is spoken

of but the hanging of the constables who serve writs," but farther,

together with the ownership of the water-sources, the power of

collecting, directing, and distributing the water is overthrown, and, in

a country of in a country of steep slopes, the consequences of such

an operation may be imagined. Three leagues from Tulle, in a forming a

semi-circle, a pond twenty feet in depth, and covering an area of three

hundred acres, was enclosed by a broad embankment on the side of a

very deep gorge, which was completely covered with houses, mills, and

cultivation. On the 17th of April, 1791, a troop of five hundred armed

men assembled by the beat of a drum, and collected from three villages

in the vicinity, set themselves to demolish the dike. The proprietor,

M. de Sedières, a substitute-deputy in the National Assembly, is not

advised of it until eleven o'clock in the evening. Mounting his horse,

along with his guests and domestics, he makes a charge on the insane

wretches, and, with the aid of pistol and gun shots, disperses them. It

was time, for the trench they had dug was already eight feet deep,

and the water was nearly on a level with it: a half-hour later and the

terrible rolling mass of waters would have poured out on the inhabitants

of the gorge.--But such vigorous strokes, which are rare and hardly ever

successful, are no defense against universal and continuous attacks.

The regular troops and the gendarmerie, both of which are in the way of

reorganization or of dissolution, are not trustworthy, or are too weak.

There are no more than thirty of the cavalry in Creuse, and as many in

Corrèze. The National Guards of the towns are knocked up by expeditions

into the country, and there is no money with which to provide for their

change of quarters. And finally, as the elections are in the hands of

the people, this brings into power men disposed to tolerate popular

excesses. At Tulle, the electors of the second class, almost all chosen

from among the cultivators, and, moreover, catechized by the club,

nominate for deputies and public prosecutor only the candidates who are

pledged against rentals and against water privileges.--Accordingly, the

general demolition of the dikes begins as the month of May approaches.

This operation continues unopposed on a vast pond, a league and a half

from the town, and lasts for a whole week; elsewhere, on the arrival of

the guards or of the gendarmerie, they are fired upon. Towards the end

of September, all the embankments in the department are broken down:

nothing is left in the place of the ponds but fetid marshes; the

mill-wheels no longer turn, and the fields are no longer watered. But

those who demolish them carry away baskets full of fish, and the soil of

the ponds again becomes communal.--Hatred is not the motive which impels

them, but the instinct of acquisition: all these violent outstretched

hands, which rigidly resist the law, are directed against property, but

not against the proprietor; they are more greedy than hostile. One of

the noblemen of Corrèze,[3278] M. de Saint-Victour, has been absent for

five years. From the beginning of the Revolution, although his feudal

dues constitute one-half of the income of his estate, he has given

orders that no rigorous measures shall be employed in their collection,

and the result is that, since 1789, none of them were collected.

Moreover, having a reserve stock of wheat on hand, he lent grain, to the

amount of four thousand francs, to those of his tenants who had none.

In short, he is liberal, and, in the neighboring town, at Ussel, he even

passes for a Jacobin. In spite of all this, he is treated just like the

rest. It is because the parishes in his domain are "clubbist," governed

by associations of moral and practical levelers; in one of them "the

brigands have organized themselves into a municipal body," and have

chosen their leader as procureur-syndic. Consequently, on the 22nd of

August, eighty armed peasants opened the dam of his large pond, at the

risk of submerging a village in the neighborhood, the inhabitants of

which came and closed it up. Five other ponds belonging to him are

demolished in the course of the two following weeks; fish to the value

of from four to five thousand francs are stolen, and the rest perish in

the weeds. In order to make this expropriation sure, an effort is made

to burn his title-deeds; his chateau, twice attacked in the night, is

saved only by the National Guard of Ussel. His farmers and domestics

hesitate, for the time being, whether or not to cultivate the ground,

and come and ask the steward if they could sow the seeds. There is no

recourse to the proper authorities: the administrators and judges, even

when their own property is concerned, "dare not openly show themselves,"

because "they do not find themselves protected by the shield of the law.

"--Popular will, traversing both the old and the new law, obstinately

persists in its work, and forcibly attains its ends. Thus, whatever the

grand terms of liberty, equality, and fraternity may be, with which the

Revolution graces itself, it is, in its essence, a transfer of property;

in this alone consists its chief support, its enduring energy,

its primary impulse and its historical significance.--Formerly, in

antiquity, similar movements were accomplished, debts were abolished or

lessened, the possessions of the rich were confiscated, and the public

lands were divided; but this operation was confined to a city and

limited to a small territory. For the first time it takes place on a

large scale and in a modern State.--Thus far, in these vast States, when

the deeper foundations have been disturbed, it has ever been on account

of foreign domination or on account of an oppression of conscience.

In France in the fifteenth century, in Holland in the sixteenth and in

England in the seventeenth century, the peasant, the mechanic, and the

laborer had taken up arms against an enemy or in behalf of their faith.

On religious or patriotic zeal has followed the craving for prosperity

and comfort, and the new motive is as powerful as the others; for in

our industrial, democratic, and utilitarian societies it is this which

governs almost all lives, and excites almost all efforts. Kept down for

centuries, the passion recovers itself by throwing off government

and privilege, the two great weights which have borne it down. At the

present time this passion launches itself impetuously with its whole

force, with brutal insensibility, athwart every kind of proprietorship

that is legal and legitimate, whether it be public or private. The

obstacles it encounters only render it the more destructive,

beyond property it attacks proprietors, and completes plunder with

proscriptions.

*****

[Footnote 3201: The expression is that of Jean Bon Saint-André to

Mathieu Dumas, sent to re-establish tranquillity in Montauban (1790):

"The day of vengeance, which we have been awaiting for a hundred years,

has come!"]

[Footnote 3202: De Dampmartin, I. 187 (an eye-witness).]

[Footnote 3203: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3223 and 3216. Letters of

M. de Bouzols, major general, residing at Montpellier, May 21, 25, 28,

1790.]

[Footnote 3204: Mary Lafon, "Histoire d'une Ville Protestante ".(with

original documents derived from the archives of Montauban).]

[Footnote 3205: Archives Nationales," F7, 2216. Procés-verbal of the

Municipality of Nîmes and report of the Abbé de Belmont.--Report of the

Administrative commissioners, June 28, 1790.--Petition of the Catholics,

April 20.--Letters of the Municipality, the commissioners, and M.

de Nausel, on the events of May 2 and 3.--Letter of M. Rabaut

Saint-Etienne, May 12--Petition of the widow Gas, July 30.--Report

(printed) of M. Alquier, February 19, 1791.--Memoir (printed) of the

massacre of the Catholics at Nîmes, by Froment (1790).--New address

of the Municipality of Nîmes, presented by M. de Marguerite, mayor and

deputy (1790), printed. Mercure de France, February 23, 1791.]

[Footnote 3206: The petition is signed by 3,127 persons, besides

1560 who put a cross declaring that they could not write. The

counter-petition of the club is signed by 262 persons.]

[Footnote 3207: This last item, stated in M. Alquier's report, is denied

by the municipality. According to it, the red rosettes gathered around

the bishop's quarters had no guns.]

[Footnote 3208: An insurrection in the sixteenth century, when the

Protestants fired on the Catholics on St. Michael's Day.--320TR.]

[Footnote 3209: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3216. Letter of M. de Lespin,

Major at Nîmes, to the commandant of Provence, M de Perigord, July

27, 1790: "The plots and conspiracies which were attributed to the

vanquished party, and which, it was believed, would be discovered in the

depositions of the four hundred men in prison, vanish as the proceedings

advance. The veritable culprits are to be found among the informers."]

[Footnote 3210: Buchez and Roux, III. 240 (Memorandum of the Ministers,

October 28, 1789).--"Archives Nationales," D, XXIX. 3. Deliberation of

the Municipal council of Vernon (November 4, 1789)]

[Footnote 3211: "Archives Nationales," KK, 1105. correspondence of M. de

Thiard, November 4, 1789.--See similar occurrences, September 4, October

23, November 4 and 19, 1789, January 27 and March 27, 1790]

[Footnote 3212: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3257. Letter from Gex, May

29, 1790.--Buchez and Roux, VII. 198, 369 (September, October, 1790).]

[Footnote 3213: "Archives Nationales," H. 1453. correspondence of M. de

Bercheny, Commandant of the four central provinces. Letters of May

25, June 11, 19, and 27, 1790.--" Archives Nationales," D. XXIX. 4.

Deliberations of the district administrators of Bourbon-Lancy, May 26.]

[Footnote 3214: "Archives Nationales," H. 2453. Minutes of the meeting

of a dozen parishes in Nivernais, June 4. "White bread is to be 2 sous,

and brown bread 11/2 sous. Husbandmen are to have 30 sous, reapers 10

sous, wheelwrights 10 sous, bailiffs 6 sous per league. Butter is to

be at 8 sous, meat at 5 sous, pork at 8 sous, oil at 8 sous the pint, a

square foot of masonry-work 40 sous, a pair of large sabots 3 sous. All

rights of pasturage and of forests are to be surrendered. The roads

are to be free everywhere, as formerly. All seignorial rents are to be

suppressed. Millers are to take only one thirty-second of a bushel.

The seigneurs of our department are to give up all servile holidays and

ill-acquired property. The curé of Bièze is simply to say mass at nine

o'clock in the morning and vespers at two o'clock in the afternoon, in

summer and winter; he must marry and bury gratis, it being reserved to

us to pay him a salary. He is to be paid 6 sous for masses, and not to

leave his curé except to repeat his breviary and make proper calls on

the men and women of his parish. Hats must be had from 3 livres to 30

sous. Nails 3 livres the gross. Curés are to have none but circumspect

females of fifty for domestics. Curés are not to go to either fairs or

markets. All curés are to be on the same footing as the one at Bièze.

There must be no more wholesale dealers in wheat. Law officers who make

unjust seizures must return the money. Farm leases must expire on St.

Martin's Day. M. le Comte, although not there, M. de Tontenelle, and M.

de Commandant must sign this document without difficulty. M. de Mingot

is formally to resign his place in writing: he went away with his

servant-woman--he even missed his mass on the first Friday of the

Fête-Dieu, and it is supposed that he slept in the woods. Joiners' wages

shall be fixed at the same rate as wheelwrights'. Ox-straps are not

to cost over 40 sous, yokes 10 sous. Masters must pay one-half of the

tailles. Notaries are to take only the half of what they had formerly,

as well as comptrollers. The Commune claims the right of protest against

whatever it may have forgotten in the present article, in fact or in

law." (It is signed by about twenty persons, several of them being

mayors and municipal clerks.)]

[Footnote 3215: "Archives Nationales," H. 1453. The same correspondence,

May 29, June 11 and 17, September 15, 1790.--ibid, F7, 3257. Letter of

the municipal authorities of Marsigny, May 3; of the municipal officers

of Bourbon-Lancy, June 5. Extract from letters written to M. Amelot,

June 1st.]

[Footnote 3216: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3185, 3186. Letter of the

President of the Tribunal of the district of Laon, February 8, 1792.]

[Footnote 3217: "Archives Nationales F7, 3268. Procés-verbal and

observations of the two commissioners sent to Étampes September 22-25,

1791.]

[Footnote 3218: "Archives Nationales F7, 3265. The following document,

among many others, shows the expedients and conceptions of the popular

imagination. Petition of several inhabitants of the commune of Forges

(Seine Inférieure) "to the good and incorruptible Minister of the

Interior" (October 16, 1792). After three good crops in succession,

the famine still continues. Under the ancient régime wheat was

superabundant; hogs were fed with it, and calves were fattened with

bread. It is certain, therefore, that wheat is diverted by monopolists

and the enemies of the new regime. The farms are too large; let them

he divided. There is too much pasture-ground: sow it with wheat. Compel

each farmer and land-owner to give a statement of his crop: let the

quantity be published at the church service, and in case of falsehood

let the man be put to death or imprisoned, and his grain he confiscated.

Oblige all the cultivators of the neighborhood to sell their wheat at

Forges only, etc."]

[Footnote 3219: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3268. Report of the

commissioners sent by the department, March 11, 1792 (apropos of the

insurrection of March 4).--Mortimer-Ternaux, I. 381.]

[Footnote 3220: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3268. Letters of several

mayors, district administrators, cultivators of Velizy, Villacoublay,

La celle-Saint-Cloud, Montigny, etc. November 12, 1791.--Letter of M.

de Narbonne, January 13, 1792; of M. Sureau, justice of the peace in the

canton of Étampes, September 17, 1791.--Letter of Bruyères-le-Châtel,

January 28, 1792.]

[Footnote 3221: A term applied to brigands at this epoch who demand

money and objects of value, and force their delivery by exposing the

soles of the feet of their victims to a fire.--32TR.]

[Footnote 3222: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3203. Letter of the Directory

of Cher, August 25, 1791.--F7, 3240. Letter of the Directory of Haute

Marne, November 6, 1791.--F7, 3248. Minutes of the meeting of the

members of the department of the Nord, March 18, 1791.--F7, 3250.

Minutes of the meeting of the municipal officers of Montreuil-sur-Mer,

October 16, 1791.--F7, 3265. Letter of the Directory of Seine Infereure,

July 22, 1791.--D, XXIX. 4. Remonstrances of the municipalities

assembled at Tostes, July 21, 1791.--Petition, of the municipal officers

of the districts of Dieppe, Cany, and Caudebec, July 22, 1791.]

[Footnote 3223: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3268 and 3269, passim.]

[Footnote 3224: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3268 and 3269, passim.

Deliberations of the Directory of Seine-et-Oise, September 20, 1791

(apropos of the insurrection. September 16, at Étampes).--Letter of

Charpentier, president of the district, September 19.--Report of the

Department Commissioners, March 11, 1792 (on the insurrection at Brunoy,

March 4.)--Report of the Department Commissioners, March 4, 1792 (on

the insurrection at Montlhéry, February 13 to 20).--Deliberation of the

Directory of Seine-et-Oise, September 16, 1791 (on the insurrection at

Corbeil).--Letters of the mayors of Limours, Lonjumeau, etc.]

[Footnote 3225: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3268 and 3269,

passim.--Minutes of the meeting of the Municipality of Montlhéry,

February 28, 1792: "We cannot enter into fuller details without exposing

ourselves to extremities which would be only disastrous to us."--Letter

of the justice of the peace of the canton, February 25: "Public outcry

teaches me that if I issue writs of arrest against those who massacred

Thibault, the people would rise."]

[Footnote 3226: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3268 and 3269, passim.

Reports of the gendarmerie, February 24, 1792, and the following

days.--Letter of the sergeant of Limours, March 2; of the manager of the

farm of Plessis-le-Comte, February 23.]

[Footnote 3227: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3268 and 3269,

passim.--Memorandum to the National Assembly by the citizens of

Rambouillet, September 17, 1792.]

[Footnote 3228: "Archives Nationales," F7 3268 and 3269, Passim.

Minutes of the meeting of the Municipality of Montlhéry, February

27, 1792.--Buchez and Roux, XIII. 421, (March, 1792); and XIII.,

317.--Mercure de France, February 25, 1792. (Letters of M. Dauchy,

President of the Directory of the Department; of M. de Gouy, messenger

sent by the minister, etc.)--Moniteur, sitting of February 15, 1792.]

[Footnote 3229: Decree of September 3, 1792.]

[Footnote 3230: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3268 and 3269. Petition of

the citizens of Montfort-l'Amaury, Saint-Léger, Gros-Rouvre, Gelin,

Laqueue, and Méré, to the citizens of Rambouillet.]

[Footnote 3231: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3230. Letter of an

administrator of the district of Vendôme, with the deliberation of the

commune of Vendôme, November 24, 1792.]

[Footnote 3232: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3255. Letter of the

administrators of the Department of Seine-Inférieure, Octobers 23,

1792.--Letters of the Special Committee of Rouen, October 22 and

23, 1792: "The more the zeal and patriotism of the cultivators is

stimulated, the more do they seem determined to avoid the market-places,

which are always in a State of absolute destitution."]

[Footnote 3233: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3265. Letter of David, a

cultivator, October 20, 1792.--Letter of the Department Administrators,

October 13, 1792, etc.--Letter (printed) of the minister to the

convention, November 4.--Proclamation of the Provisional Executive

council, October 31, 1792. (The setier of grain of two hundred and forty

pounds is sold at 60 francs in the south, and at half that sum in the

north.)]

[Footnote 3234: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3255. Letters of Bonnemant,

September 11, 1792; of Laussel, September 22, 1792.]

[Footnote 3235: "Archives Nationales," H, 1453. Correspondence of M.

de Bercheny, July 28, October 24 and 26, 1790.--The same disposition

lasted. An insurrection occurred in Issoudun after the three days of

July, 1830, against the combined imposts. Seven or eight thousand wine

growers burnt the archives and tax-offices and dragged an employee

through the streets, shouting out at each street-lamp, "Let him be

hung!" The general sent to repress the outbreak entered the town only

through a capitulation; the moment he reached the Hôtel-de-Ville a

man of the Faubourg de Rome put his pruning-book around his neck,

exclaiming, "No more clerks where there is nothing to do!"]

[Footnote 3236: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3203. Letter of the Directory

of Cher, April 9, 1790.--Ibid, F7, 3255. Letter of August 4, 1790.

Verdict of the présidial, November 4, 1790.--Letter of the Municipality

of Saint-Etienne, August 5, 1790.]

[Footnote 3237: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3248. Letter of M. Sénac de

Mejlhan, April 10, 1790.--Letter of the grands baillis, June 30, 1790.]

[Footnote 3238: Buchez and Roux, VI. 403. Report of Chabroud on the

insurrection at Lyons, July 9 and 10, 1790.--Duvergier, "Collection des

Décrets." Decrees of August 4 and 15, 1790.]

[Footnote 3239: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3255. Letter of the Minister,

July 2, 1790, to the Directory of Rhône-et-Loire. "The King is informed

that, throughout your department, and especially in the districts of

Saint-Etienne and Montbrison, license is carried to the extreme;

that the judges dare not prosecute; that in many places the municipal

officers are at the head of the disturbances; and that, in others, the

National Guard do not obey requisitions."--Letter of September 5, 1790.

"In the bourg of Thisy, brigands have invaded divers cotton-spinning

establishments and partially destroyed them and after having plundered

them, they have sold the goods by public auction."]

[Footnote 3240: Buchez and Roux, VI. 345. Report of M. Muguet, July 1,

1790.]

[Footnote 3241: Minutes of the meeting of the National Assembly.

(Sitting of October 24, 1789.)--Decree of September 27, 1789, applicable

the 1st of October. There are other alleviations applicable on the 1st

of January, 1790.]

[Footnote 3242: Mercure de France, February 27, 1790. (Memorandum of the

garde des sceaux, January 16.)--Observations of M. Necker on the report

made by the Financial committee, at the sitting of March 12, 1790.]

[Footnote 3243: "Archives Nationales," H, 1453. Correspondence of M. de

Bercheny, April 24, May 4 and 6, 1790: "It is much to be feared that the

tobacco-tax will share the fate of the salt-tax."]

[Footnote 3244: Mercure de France, July 31, 1790 (sitting of July 10.)

M. Lambert, Comptroller General of the Finances, informs the Assembly of

"the obstacles which continual outbreaks, brigandage, and the maxims of

anarchical freedom impose, from one end of France to the other, on the

collection of the taxes. On one side, the people are led to believe

that, if they stubbornly refuse a tax contrary to their rights, it

abolition will be secured. Elsewhere, smuggling is openly carried on

by force; the people favor it, while the National Guards refuse to act

against the nation. In other places hatred is excited, and divisions

between the troops and the overseers at the toll-houses: the latter

are massacred, the bureaus are pillaged, and the prisons are forced

open."--Memorandum from M. Necker to the National Assembly, July 21,

1790.]

[Footnote 3245: Decrees of March 21 and 22, 1790, applicable April 21

following.--Decrees of February 19 and March 2, 1791, applicable May 1

following.]

[Footnote 3246: De Goncourt, "La Societé Française pendant la

Révolution," 204.--Maxime Du Camp, "Paris, sa vie et ses organes," VI.

11.]

[Footnote 3247: "Compte des Revenus et Dépenses au 1er Mai,

1789."--Memorandum of M. Necker, July 21, 1790.--Memoranda presented by

M. de Montesquiou, September 9, 1791.--Comptes-rendus by the minister,

Clavières, October 5, 1792, February 1, 1792.--Report of Cambon,

February, 1793.]

[Footnote 3248: Boivin-Champeaux, 231.]

[Footnote 3249: Mercure de France, May 28, 1791. (Sitting of May

22.)--Speech of M. d'Allarde: "Burgundy has paid nothing belonging to

1790."]

[Footnote 3250: Moniteur, sitting of June 1, 1790. Speech by

M. Freteau.--Mercure de France. November 26, 1791. Report by

Lafont-Ladebat.]

[Footnote 3251: "Archives Nationales," H, 2453. correspondence of M.

de Bercheny, June 5, 1790, etc.--F7, 3226. Letters of Chenantin,

cultivator, November 7, 1792, also of the prosecuting attorney, November

6.--F7, 3269. Minutes of the meeting of the municipality of Clugnac,

August 5th, 1792.--F7, 3202. Letter of the Minister of Justice, Duport,

January 3, 1792. "The utter absence of public force in the district of

Montargis renders every operation of the Government and all execution of

the laws impossible. The arrears of taxes to be collected is here very

considerable, while all proceedings of constraint are dangerous and

impossible to execute, owing to the fears of the bailiffs, who dare not

perform their duties, and the violence of the tax-payers, on whom there

is no check."]

[Footnote 3252: Report of the Committee on Finances, by Ramel, 19th

Floréal, year II (The Constituent Assembly had fixed the real tax of a

house at one-sixth of its letting value.)]

[Footnote 3253: Mercure de France, December 12, 1789.--"Archives

Nationales," F7, 3268. Memorandum from the officers in command of

the detachment of the Paris National Guard stationed at

Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (April, 1790). Certificate of the Municipal

Officers of Poissy, March 31.]

[Footnote 3254: Mercure de France, March 12 and 26, 1791.--"Archives

Nationales," H, 1453. Letter of the police-lieutenant of Blois, April

22, 1790.--Mercure de France, July 24, 1790. Two of the murderers

exclaimed to those who tried to save one of the keepers, "Hanging is

well done at Paris! Bah, you are aristocrats! We shall be talked about

in the gazettes of Paris." (Deposition of witnesses.)--Decrees and

proclamations regarding the protection of the forests, November 3 and

December 11, 1789.--Another in October, 1790.--Another June 29, 1791.]

[Footnote 3255: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3219. Letter of the bailli de

Virieu, January 26, 1792.]

[Footnote 3256: Mercure de France, December 3, 1791. (Letter from

Sarreluis, November 15, 1791.)--"Archives Nationales," F7, 3223. Letter

of the Municipal Officers of Montargis. January 8, 1792.]

[Footnote 3257: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3268. Letter of the overseer

of the national domains at Rambouillet, October 31, 1792.--Report of the

minister Clavières, February 1. 1793.]

[Footnote 3258: Decrees of August 14, 1792, June 10, 1793.--"Archives

Nationales," Missions des Représentants, D, § 7. (Deliberation of the

district of Troyes, 2 Ventose, an. III.)--At Thunelières, the drawing

took place on the 10th Fructidor, year II, and was done over again in

behalf of a servant of Billy, an influential municipal officer who

"was the soul of his colleagues."--Ibid. Abstract of operations in the

district of Arcis-sur-Aube, 30 Pluviose, year III. "Two-thirds of the

communes hold this kind of property. Most of them have voted on and

effected the partition, or are actually engaged on it."]

[Footnote 3259: Mercure de France, January 7, 1790. (Chateau of Auxon in

Haute-Saone.)--"Archives Nationales," F7, 3255. (Letter of the minister

to the Directory of Rhone-et-Loire, July 2, 1790.)--Mercure de France,

July 17, 1790. (Report of M. de Broglie, July 13, and decree of July

13-18.)--"Archives Nationales," H, 1453. (Correspondence of M. de

Bercheny, July 21, 1790.)]

[Footnote 3260: Mercure de France, March 19, 1790. Letter from Amien,

February 28. (Mallet du Pan publishes in the Mercure only letters which

are signed and authentic.)]

[Footnote 3261: "Archives Nationales," KK, 1105. (Correspondence of M.

de Thiard; letters of Chevalier de Bévy, December 26, 1789, and others

up to April 5, 1790.)--Moniteur, sitting of February 9, 1790.--Mercure

de France, February 6 and March 6, 1790 (list of chateaux).]

[Footnote 3262: "Archives Nationales," KK, 1105. (correspondence of M.

de Thiard.) Letters of the Mayor of Nantes, February 16,!790, of the

Municipality of Redon, February 19, etc.]

[Footnote 3263: Mercure de France, February 6 and 27, 1790. (Speech of

M. de Foucault, sittings of February 2 and 5)--Moniteur (same dates).

(Report of Grégoire, February 9; speeches by MM. Sallé de Chaux and de

Noailles, February 9.)--Memorandum of the deputies of the town of Tulle,

drawn up by the Abbé Morellet (from the deliberations and addresses of

eighty-three boroughs and cities in the province).]

[Footnote 3264: In allusion to the feudal custom of paying seignorial

dues on the first of May around a maypole. See further on. 32TR]

[Footnote 3265: Criminal Courts without appeal.--32TR.]

[Footnote 3266: Moniteur, sitting of March 4, 1790.--Duvergier, decrees

of March 6, 1790, and August 6-10 1790]

[Footnote 3267: The address is dated February 11, 1793. This singularly

comic document would alone suffice to make the history of the Revolution

perfectly comprehensible.]

[Footnote 3268: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3203. (Letters of the royal

commissioner, April 30 and May 9, 1790.)--Letter of the Duc de Maillé,

May 6.--Report from the administrators of the department, November 12,

1790.--Moniteur VI. 515.]

[Footnote 3269: "Archives Nationales," F7, 3225. Letter of the Directory

from Ille-et-Vilaine, January 30, 1791, and letter from Dinan, January

29--Mercure de France, April 2 and 16, 1791. Letters from Rennes, March

20th; from Redon, March 12.]

[Footnote 3270: So expressed in the minutes of the meeting.]

[Footnote 3271: Moniteur, sitting of December 15, 1790. (Address of the

department of Lot, December 7.)--Sitting of December 20 (Speech by M. de

Foucault.)--Mercure de France, December 18, 1790. (Letter from Belves,

in Perigord, December 7.)--Ibid., January 22, 29, 1791. (Letter from M.

de Clarac, January 18.)]

[Footnote 3272: December 17, 1790.]

[Footnote 3273: January 7, 1791.]

[Footnote 3274: Revolutionary archives of the department of Creuse,

by Duval. (Letter of the administrators of the department, March 31,

1791.)--"Archives Nationales," F7, 3209. (Deliberation of the

Directory of the Department, May 12, 1791--Minutes of the meeting of the

municipality of La Souterraine, August 23, 1791.)]

[Footnote 3275: "Archives Nationales", F7, 3269.--Order of the directory

of the district of Ribérac, August 5, 1791, and requisitions of the

prosecuting attorney of the department, August 24, and September

11.--Letter of the king's commissioner, August 22.]

[Footnote 3276: A sort of export duty.--32TR.]

[Footnote 3277: "Archives Nationales," P7, 3204.--Letter, from the

Directory of the Department, June 2, 1791; September 8 and 22.--Letter

from the Minister of Justice, May 15, 1791.--Letter from M. de

Lentilhac, September 2.--Letter from M. Melon-Padon, Royal Commissioner,

September.--Mercure de France, May 14, 1791. (Letter of an eye-witness,

M.de Loyac, April 25, 1791.)]

[Footnote 3278: "Archives Nationales," F7. 3204. Letters from M. de

Saint-Victour, September 25, October 2 and 10, 1791.--Letter from the

steward of his estate, September 18.]

CHAPTER III. Development of the ruling Passion.

I.--Attitude of the nobles. Their moderate resistance.

If popular passion ended in murder it was not because resistance was

great or violent. On the contrary, never did an aristocracy undergo

dispossession with so much patience, or employ less force in the defense

of its prerogatives, or even of its property. To speak with exactness,

the class in question receives blows without returning them, and when

it does take up arms, it is always with the bourgeois and the National

Guard, at the request of the magistrates, in conformity with the law,

and for the protection of persons and property. The nobles try to avoid

being either killed or robbed, nothing more: for nearly three years

they raise no political banner. In the towns where they exert the most

influence and which are denounced as rebellious, for ex-ample in Mende

and Arles, their opposition is limited to the suppression of riots, the

restraining of the common people, and ensuring respect for the law, It

is not the new order of things against which they conspire, but against

brutal disorder.--At Mende," says the municipal body,[3301] "we had

the honor of being the first to furnish the contributions of 1790. We

supplied the place of our bishop and installed his successor without

disturbance, and without the assistance of any foreign force . . . . We

dispersed the members of a cathedral body to which we were attached by

the ties of blood and friendship; we dismissed all, from the bishop down

to the children of the choir. We had but three communities of mendicant

monks, and all three have been suppressed. We have sold all national

possessions without exception."--The commander of their gendarmerie is,

in fact, an old member of the body-guard, while the superior officers of

the National Guard are gentlemen, or belong to the order of Saint-Louis.

It is very evident that, if they defend themselves against Jacobins,

they are not insurgent against the National Assembly.--In Arles,[3302]

which has put down its populace, which has armed itself, which has shut

its gates, and which passes for a focus of royalist conspiracy, the

commissioners sent by the King and by the National Assembly, men

of discretion and of consideration, find nothing, after a month's

investigation, but submission to the decrees and zeal for the public

welfare.

"Such," they say, "are the men who have been calumniated because,

cherishing the Constitution, they hold fanaticism, demagogues and

anarchy, in horror. If the citizens had not roused themselves when the

moment of danger arrived, they would have been slaughtered like their

neighbors (of Avignon). It is this insurrection against crime which the

brigands have slandered." If their gates were shut it was because "the

National Guard of Marseilles, the same which behaved so badly in the

Comtat, flocked there under the pretext of maintaining liberty and of

forestalling the counter-revolution, but, in reality, to village the

town."

Vive la Nation! Vive la Loi! Vive le Roi were the only cries heard at

the very quiet and orderly elections that had just taken place.

"The attachment of the citizens to the Constitution has been spoken

of. . . . Obedience to the laws, the readiest disposition to discharge

public contributions, were remarked by us among these pretended

counter-revolutionaries. Those who are subject to the license-tax came

in crowds to the Hôtel-de-Ville." Scarcely "was the bureau of receipts

opened when it was filled with respectable people; those on the contrary

who style themselves good patriots, republicans or anarchists, were not

conspicuous on this occasion; but a very small number among them have

made their submission. The rest are surprised at being called upon for

money; they had been given a quite different hope."

In short, during more than thirty months, and under a steady fire of

threats, outrages, and plunder, the nobles who remain in France neither

commit nor undertake any hostile act against the Government that

persecutes them. None of them, not even M. de Bouillé, attempts to carry

out any real plan of civil war; I find but one resolute man in their

ranks at this date, ready for action, and who labors to form one

militant party against another militant party: he is really a politician

and conspirator; he has an understanding with the Comte d'Artois; he

gets petitions signed for the freedom of the King and of the Church;

he organizes armed companies; he recruits the peasants; he prepares

a Vendée for Languedoc and Provence; and this person is a bourgeois,

Froment of Nîmes.[3303] But, at the moment of action, he finds only

three out of eighteen companies, supposed by him to be enlisted in

his cause, that are willing to march with him. Others remain in their

quarters until, Froment being overcome, they are found there and

slaughtered; the survivors, who escape to Jalès, find, not a stronghold,

but a temporary asylum, where they never succeed in transforming their

inclinations into determinations.[3304]--The nobles too, like other

Frenchmen, have been subject to the lasting pressure of monarchical

centralization. They no longer form one body; they have lost the

instinct of association. They no longer know how to act for themselves;

they are the puppets of administration awaiting an impulse from the

center, while at the center the King, their hereditary general, a

captive in the hands of the people, commands them to be resigned and to

do nothing.[3305] Moreover, like other Frenchmen, they have been

brought up in the philosophy of the eighteenth century. "Liberty is

so precious," wrote the Duc de Brissac,[3306] "that it may well be

purchased with some suffering; a destroyed feudalism will not prevent

the good and the true from being respected and loved."--They persist in

this illusion for a long time and remain optimists. As they feel kindly

towards the people, they cannot comprehend that the people should

entertain other sentiments toward them; they firmly believe that

the troubles are transient. Immediately on the proclamation of the

Constitution they return in crowds from Spain, Belgium, and Germany;

at Troyes there are not enough post-horses for many days to supply

the emigrants who are coming back.[3307] Thus they accept not only the

abolition of feudalism with civil equality, but also political equality

and numerical sovereignty.

Some consideration for them, some outward signs of respect, a few bows,

would, in all probability, have rallied them sincerely to democratic

institutions. They would soon consent to be confounded with the crowd,

to submit to the common level, and to live as private individuals. Had

they been treated like the bourgeois or the peasant, their neighbors,

had their property and persons been respected, they might have accepted

the new régime without any bitterness of feeling. That the leading

emigrant nobles and those forming a part of the old court carry on

intrigues at Coblentz or at Turin is natural, since they have lost

everything: authority, places, pensions, sinecures, pleasures, and

the rest. But, to the gentry and inferior nobles of the provinces,

chevaliers of Saint-Louis, subaltern officers and resident proprietors,

the loss is insignificant. The law has suppressed one-half of their

seignorial dues; but by virtue of the same law their lands are no longer

burdened with tithes. Popular elections will not provide them with

places, but they did not enjoy them under the arbitrary ministerial

rule. Little does it matter to them that power, whether ministerial or

popular, has changed hands: they are not accustomed to its favors, and

will pursue their ordinary avocations--the chase, promenading, reading,

visiting, and conversing--provided they, like the first-comer, the

grocer at the corner, or their farm-servant, find protection, safety,

and security on the public road and in their dwellings.[3308]

II.--Workings of the popular imagination with respect to them.

The monomania of suspicion.--The nobles distrusted and

treated as enemies.--Situation of a gentleman on his

domain.--M. de. Bussy

Popular passion, unfortunately, is a blind power, and, for lack of

enlightenment, suffers itself to be guided by spectral illusions.

Imaginary conceptions work, and work in conformity with the structure of

the excited brain which has given birth to them:

What if the Ancient Regime should return!

What if we were obliged to restore the property of the clergy!

What if we should be again forced to pay the salt tax, the excise,

the taille, and other dues which, thanks to the law, we no longer pay,

besides other taxes and dues that we do not pay in spite of the law!

What if all the nobles whose chateaux are burnt, and who have given rent

acquittances at the point of the sword, should find some way to avenge

themselves and recover their former privileges!

Undoubtedly they brood over these things, make agreements amongst each

other, and plot with the strangers; at the first opportunity they

will fall upon us: we must watch them, repress them, and, if needs be,

destroy them.--This instinctive process of reasoning prevailed from

the outset, and, in proportion as excesses increase, prevails to a

much greater extent. The noble is ever the past, present, and future

creditor, or, at the very least, a possible one, which means that he is

the worst and most odious of enemies. All his ways are suspicious, even

when he is doing nothing; whatever he may do it is with a view of arming

himself.

M. de Gilliers, who lives with his wife and sister one league out of

Romans in Dauphiny,[3309] amuses himself by planting trees and flowers;

a few steps from his house, on another domain, M. de Montchorel, an old

soldier, and M. Osmond, an old lawyer from Paris, with their wives and

children, occupy their leisure hours in somewhat the same manner. M.

de Gilliers having ordered and received wooden water-pipes, the report

spreads that they are cannon. His guest, M. Servan, receives an English

traveling-trunk, which is said to be full of pistols. When M. Osmond and

M. Servan stroll about the country with pencils and drawing-paper, it

is averred that they are preparing topographical plans for the Spaniards

and Savoyards. The four carriages belonging to the two families go to

Romans to fetch some guests: instead of four there are nineteen, and

they are sent for aristocrats who are coming to hide away in underground

passages. M. de Senneville, decorated with a cordon rouge (red ribbon),

pays a visit on his return from Algiers: the decoration becomes a blue

one, and the wearer is the Comte d'Artois[3310] in person. There is

certainly a plot brewing, and at five o'clock in the morning eighteen

communes (two thousand armed men) arrive before the doors of the two

houses; shouts and threats of death last for eight hours; a gun fired a

few paces off at the suspects misfires; a peasant who is aiming at them

says to his neighbor, "Give me a decent gun and I will plant both

my balls in their bodies!" Finally, M. de Gilliers, who was absent,

attending a baptism, returns with the Royal Chasseurs of Dauphiny and

the National Guard of Romans, and with their assistance delivers his

family.--It is only in the towns, that is, in a few towns, and for a

very short time, that an inoffensive noble who is attacked obtains any

aid; the phantoms which people create for themselves there are less

gross; a certain degree of enlightenment, and a remnant of common sense,

prevent the hatching of too absurd stories.--But in the dark recesses

of rustic brains nothing can arrest the monomania of suspicion. Fancies

multiply there like weeds in a dark hole: they take root and vegetate

until they become belief, conviction, and certainty; they produce the

fruit of hostility and hatred, homicidal and incendiary ideas. With eyes

constantly fixed on the chateau, the village regards it as a Bastille

which must be captured, and, instead of saluting the lord of the manor,

it thinks only of firing at him.

Let us take up one of these local histories in detail.[3311] In the

month of July, 1789, during the jacquerie in Mâçonnais, the parish of

Villiers appealed for assistance to its lord, M. de Bussy, a former

colonel of dragoons. He had returned home, treated the people of his

village to a dinner, and attempted to form them into a body of guards

to protect themselves against incendiaries and brigands; along with the

well-disposed men of the place "he patrolled every evening to restore

tranquillity to the parish." On a rumor spreading that "the wells were

poisoned," he placed sentinels alongside of all the wells except his

own, "to prove that he was acting for the parish and not for himself."

In short, he did all he could to conciliate the villagers, and to

interest them in the common safety.--But, by virtue of being a noble

and an officer he is distrusted, and it is Perron, the syndic of the

commune, to whom the commune now listens. Perron announces that the King

"having abjured his sworn word," no more confidence is to be placed in

him, and, consequently, neither in his officers nor in the gentry. On

M. de Bussy proposing to the National Guards that they should go to the

assistance of the chateau of Thil, which is in flames, Perron prevents

them, declaring that "these fires are kindled by the nobles and the

clergy." M. de Bussy insists, and entreats them to go, offering to

abandon "his terrier," that is to say all his seignorial dues, if they

will only accompany him and arrest this destruction. They refuse to do

so. He perseveres, and, on being informed that the chateau of Juillenas

is in peril, he collects, after great efforts, a body of one hundred

and fifty men of his parish, and, marching with them, arrives in time to

save the chateau, which a mob was about to set on fire. But the popular

excitement, which he had just succeeded in calming at Juillenas, has

gained the upper hand amongst his own troop: the brigands have seduced

his men, "which obliges him to lead them back, while, along the road,

they seem inclined to fire at him."--Having returned, he is followed

with threats even to his own house: a band comes to attack his chateau;

finding it on the defensive, they insist on being led to that of

Courcelles.--In the midst of all this violence M. de Bussy, with about

fifteen friends and tenants, succeeds in protecting himself and, by

dint of patience, energy, and cool blood, without killing or wounding a

single man, ends in bringing back security throughout the whole canton.

The jacquerie subsides, and it seems as if the newly restored order

would be maintained. He sends for Madame de Bussy to return, and some

months pass away.--The popular imagination, however, is poisoned, and

whatever a gentleman may do, he is no longer tolerated on his estate. A

few leagues from there, on April 29, 1790, M. de Bois-d'Aisy, deputy

to the National Assembly, had returned to his parish to vote at the

new elections.[3312] "Scarcely has he arrived," when the commune of

Bois-d'Aisy gives him notice through its mayor "that it will not regard

him as eligible." He attends the electoral meeting which is held in the

church there, a municipal officer in the pulpit inveighs against nobles

and priests, and declares that they must not take part in the elections.

All eyes turn upon M. de Boisd'Aisy, who is the only noble present.

Nevertheless, he takes the civic oath, which nearly costs him dear, for

murmurs arise around him, and the peasants say that he ought to have

been hanged like the lord of Sainte-Colombe, to prevent his taking the

oath. In fact, the evening before, the latter, M. de Vitteaux, an

old man of seventy-four years of age, was expelled from the primary

assembly, then torn out of the house in which he had sought refuge, half

killed with blows, and dragged through the streets to the open square;

his mouth was stuffed with manure, a stick was thrust into his ears,

and "he expired after a martyrdom of three hours." The same day, in the

church of the Capuchins, at Sémur, the rural parishes which met together

excluded their priests and gentry in the same fashion. M. de Damas

and M. de Sainte-Maure were beaten with clubs and stones; the curé

of Massigny died after six stabs with a knife, and M. de Virieu saved

himself as he best could.--With such examples before them it is probable

that many of the nobles will no longer exercise their right of suffrage.

M. de Bussy does not pretend to do it. He merely tries to prove that he

is loyal to the nation, and that he meditates no wrong to the National

Guard or to the people. He proposed, at the out-set, to the volunteers

of Mâçon to join them, along with his little troop; they refused to have

him and thus the fault is not on his side. On the 14th of July, 1790,

the day of the Federation on his domain, he sends all his people off to

Villiers, furnished with the tricolour cockade. He himself, with three

of his friends, attends the ceremony to take the oath, all four in

uniform, with the cockade on their hats, without any weapons but their

swords and a light cane in their hands. They salute the assembled

National Guards of the three neighboring parishes, and keep outside

the enclosure so as not to give offense. But they have not taken into

account the prejudices and animosities of the new municipal bodies.

Perron, the former syndic, is now mayor. A man named Bailly, who is the

village shoemaker, is another of the municipal officers; their councilor

is an old dragoon, one of those soldiers probably who have deserted or

been discharged, and who are the firebrands of almost every riot that

takes place. A squad of a dozen or fifteen men leave the ranks and

march up to the four gentlemen, who advance, hat in hand, to meet them.

Suddenly the men aim at them, and Bailly, with a furious air, demands:

"What the devil do you come here for?" M. de Bussy replies that, having

been informed of the Federation, he had come to take the oath like

the rest of the people. Bailly asks why he had come armed. M. de Bussy

remarks that "having been in the service, the sword was inseparable from

the uniform," and had they come there without that badge they would have

been at fault; besides, they must have observed that they had no other

arms. Bailly, still in a rage, and, moreover, exasperated by such good

reasons, turns round with his gun in his hand towards the leader of the

squad and asks him three times in succession, "Commander, must I fire?"

The commander not daring to take the responsibility of so gratuitous a

murder, remains silent, and finally orders M. de Bussy to "clear out;"

"which I did," says M. de Bussy.--Nevertheless, on reaching home, he

writes to the municipal authorities clearly setting forth the motive of

his coming, and demands an explanation of the treatment he had received.

Mayor Perron throws aside his letter without reading it, and, on the

following day, on leaving the mass, the National Guards come, by way of

menace, to load their guns in sight of M. de Bussy, round his garden.--A

few days after this, at the instigation of Bailly, two other proprietors

in the neighborhood are assassinated in their houses. Finally, on a

journey to Lyons, M. de Bussy learns "that the chateaux in Poitou

are again in flames, and that the work is to begin again

everywhere."--Alarmed at all these indications, "he resolves to form a

company of volunteers, which, taking up their quarters in his chateau,

can serve the whole canton on a legal requisition." He thinks that about

fifteen brave men will be sufficient. He has already six men with him

in the month of October, 1790; green coats are ordered for them, and

buttons are bought for the uniform. Seven or eight domestics may be

added to the number. In the way of arms and munitions the chateau

contains two kegs of gunpowder which were on hand before 1789, seven

blunderbusses, and five cavalry sabers, left there in passing by M.

de Bussy's old dragoons: to these must be added two double-barreled

fowling-pieces, three soldiers' muskets, five brace of pistols, two poor

common guns, two old swords, and a hunting-knife. Such is the garrison,

such the arsenal, and these are the preparations, so well justified and

so slight, which prejudice conjointly with gossip is about to transform

into a great conspiracy.

The chateau, in effect, was an object of suspicion in the village from

the very first day. All its visitors, whenever they went out or came

in, with all the details of their actions, were watched, denounced,

exaggerated, and misinterpreted. If through the awkwardness or

carelessness of so many inexperienced National Guards, a stray ball

reaches a farm-house one day in broad daylight, it comes from the

chateau; it is the aristocrats who have fired upon the peasants.--There

is the same state of suspicion in the neighboring towns. The municipal

body of Valence, hearing that two youths had ordered coats made "of a

color which seemed suspicious," send for the tailor; he confesses the

fact, and adds that "they intended to put the buttons on themselves."

Such a detail is alarming. An inquiry is set on foot and the alarm

increases; people in a strange uniform have been seen passing on their

way to the chateau of Villiers; from thence, on reaching the number of

two hundred, they will go and join the garrison of Besançon; they will

travel four at a time in order to avoid detection. At Besançon they are

to meet a corps of forty thousand men, commanded by M. Autichamp, which

corps is to march on to Paris to carry off the King, and break up the

National Assembly. The National Guards along the whole route are to

be forced into the lines. At a certain distance each man is to receive

1,200 francs, and, at the end of the expedition, is to be enrolled

in the Artois Guard, or sent home with a recompense of 12,000

francs.--Meanwhile, the Prince de Condé; with forty thousand men, will

come by the way of Pont Saint-Esprit in Languedoc, rally the disaffected

of Carpentras and of the Jalès camp to his standard, and occupy Cette

and the other seaports; and finally, the Comte d'Artois, on his side,

will enter by Pont-Beauvoisin with thirty thousand men.--A horrible

discovery! The municipal authorities of Valence immediately inform those

of Lyons, Besançon, Châlons, Maçon, and others beside. On the strength

of this the municipal body of Maçon, "considering that the enemies of

the Revolution are ever making the most strenuous efforts to annihilate

the Constitution which secures the happiness of this empire," and "that

it is highly important to frustrate their designs," sends two hundred

men of its National Guard to the chateau of Villiers," empowered to

employ armed force in case of resistance." For greater security,

this troop is joined by the National Guards of the three neighboring

parishes. M. de Bussy, on being told that they were climbing over the

wall into his garden, seizes a gun and takes aim, but does not fire, and

then, the requisition being legal, throws all open to them. There are

found in the house six green coats, seven dozens of large buttons, and

fifteen dozens of small ones. The proof is manifest. He explains what

his project was and states his motive--it is a mere pretext. He makes a

sign, as an order, to his valet--there is a positive complicity. M. de

Bussy, his six guests, and the valet, are arrested and transported to

Maçon. A trial takes place, with depositions and interrogatories, in

which the truth is elicited in spite of the most adverse testimony;

it is clear that M. de Bussy never intended to do more than defend

himself.--But prejudice is a blindfold to hostile eyes. It cannot be

admitted that, under a constitution which is perfect, an innocent man

could incur danger; the objection is made to him that "it is not natural

for an armed company to be formed to resist a massacre by which it is

not menaced;" they are convinced beforehand that he is guilty. On a

decree of the National Assembly the minister had ordered all accused

persons to be brought to Paris by the constabulary and hussars; the

National Guard of Maçon, "in the greatest state of agitation," declares

that, "as it had arrested M. de Bussy, it would not consent to his

transport by any other body. . . Undoubtedly, the object is to allow him

to escape on the way," but it will know how to keep its captive secure.

The guard, in fine, of its own authority, escorts M. de Bussy to Paris,

into the Abbaye prison, where he is kept confined for several months--so

long, indeed, that, after a new trial and investigation, the absurdity

of the accusation being too palpable, they are obliged to set him at

liberty.--Such is the situation of most of the gentry on their own

estates, and M. de Bussy, even acquitted and vindicated, will act wisely

in not returning home.

III.--Domiciliary visits.

The fifth jacquerie.--Burgundy and Lyonnais in 1791.--M. de

Chaponay and M. Guillin-Dumoutet

He would be nothing but a hostage there. Alone against thousands, sole

survivor and representative of an abolished régime which all detest,

it is the noble against whom everybody turns whenever a political shock

seems to shake the new régime. He is at least disarmed, as he might

be dangerous, and, in these popular executions, brutal instincts and

appetites break loose like a bull that dashes through a door and rages

through a dwelling-house. In the same department, some months later,

on the news arriving of the arrest of the King at Varennes, "all

nonjuring[3313] priests and ci-devant nobles are exposed to the horrors

of persecution." Bands forcibly enter houses to seize arms: Commarin,

Grosbois, Montculot, Chaudenay, Créancé, Toisy, Chatellenot, and other

houses are thus visited, and several are sacked. During the night

of June 26-27, 1791, at the chateau of Créancé "there is pillaging

throughout; the mirrors are broken, the pictures are torn up, and the

doors are broken down." The master of the house, "M. de Comeau-Créncé,

Knight of St. Louis, horribly maltreated, is dragged to the foot of the

stairs, where he lies as if dead:" previous to this, "he was forced to

give a considerable contribution, and to refund all penalties collected

by him before the Revolution as the local lord of the manor. "--Two

other proprietors in the neighborhood, both Knights of St. Louis, are

treated in the same way. "That is the way in which three old and brave

soldiers are rewarded for their services!" A fourth, a peaceable man,

escapes beforehand, leaving his keys in the locks and his gardener in

the house. Notwithstanding this, the doors and the clothes-presses were

broken open, the pillaging lasting five hours and a half; with

threats of setting the house on fire if the seigneur did not make his

appearance. Questions were asked "as to whether he attended the mass of

the new curé whether he had formerly exacted fines, and finally, whether

any of the inhabitants had any complaint to make against him." No

complaint is made; on the contrary, he is rather beloved.--But, in

tumults of this sort, a hundred madmen and fifty rogues prescribe the

law to the timid and the indifferent. These outlaws declared that "they

were acting under orders; they compelled the mayor and prosecuting

attorney to take part in their robberies; they likewise took the

precaution to force a few honest citizens, by using the severest

threats, to march along with them." These people come the next day to

apologize to the pillaged proprietor, while the municipal officers draw

up a statement of the violence practiced against them. The violence

nevertheless, is accomplished, and, as it will go unpunished, it is soon

to be repeated.

A beginning and an end are already made in the two neighboring

departments. There, especially in the south, nothing is more instructive

than to see how an outbreak stimulated by enthusiasm for the public good

immediately degenerates under the impulse of private interest, and ends

in crime.--Around Lyons,[3314] under the same pretext and at the same

date, similar mobs perform similar visitations, and, on all these

occasions, "the rent-rolls are burnt, and houses are pillaged and set on

fire. Municipal authority, organized for the security of property, is in

many hands but one facility more for its violation. The National

Guard seems to be armed merely for the protection of robbery and

disorder."--For more than thirty years, M. de Chaponay, the father of

six children of whom three are in the service, expended his vast income

on his estate of Beaulieu, giving occupation to a number of persons,

men, women, and children. After the hailstorm of 1761, which nearly

destroyed the village of Moranée, he rebuilt thirty-three houses,

furnished others with timber for the framework, supplied the commune

with wheat, and, for several years, obtained for the inhabitants a

diminution of their taxation. In 1790, he celebrated the Federation

Festival on a magnificent scale, giving two banquets, one of a hundred

and thirty seats, for the municipal bodies and officers of the National

Guards in the vicinity, and the other of a thousand seats for the

privates. If any of the gentry had reason to believe himself popular

and safe it was certainly this man.--On the 24th of June, 1791, the

municipal authorities of Moranée, Lucenay, and Chazelai, with their

mayors and National Guards, in all nearly two thousand men, arrive at

the chateau with drums beating and flags flying. M. de Chaponay goes out

to meet them, and begs to know to what he owes "the pleasure" of their

visit. They reply that they do not come to offend him, but to carry out

the orders of the district, which oblige them to take possession of the

chateau and to place in it a guard of sixty men: on the following day

the "district" and the National Guard of Villefranche are to come and

inspect it.--Be it noted that these orders are imaginary, for M. de

Chaponay asks in vain to see them; they cannot be produced. The cause of

their setting out, probably, is the false rumor that the National Guard

of Villefranche is coming to deprive them of a booty on which they had

calculated.--Nevertheless M. de Chaponay submits; he merely requests

the municipal officers to make the search themselves and in an orderly

manner. Upon this the commandant of the National Guard of Lucenay

exclaims, with some irritation, that "all are equal and all must go

in," and at the same moment all rush forward. "M. de Chaponay orders the

apartments to be opened; they immediately shut them up, purposely to

let the sappers break through the doors with their axes."--Everything is

pillaged, "plate, assignats, stocks of linen, laces and other articles;

the trees of the avenues are hacked and mutilated; the cellars are

emptied, the casks are rolled out on the terrace, the wine is suffered

to run out, and the chateau keep is demolished. . . . The officers urge

on those that are laggard." Towards nine o'clock in the evening M. de

Chaponay is informed by his servants that the municipal authorities have

determined upon forcing him to sign an abandonment of his feudal dues

and afterwards beheading him. He escapes with his wife through the only

door which is left unguarded, wanders about all night, exposed to the

gun-shots of the squads which are on his track, and reaches Lyons only

on the following day.--Meanwhile the pillagers send him notice that if

he does not abandon his rentals, they will cut down his forests and

burn up everything on his estate. The chateau, indeed, is fired three

distinct times, while, in the interval, the band sack another chateau at

Bayère, and, on again passing by that of M. de Chaponay, demolish a

dam which had cost 10,000 livres.--The public prosecutor, for his part,

remains quiet, notwithstanding the appeals to him: he doubtless says to

himself that a gentleman whose house has been searched is lucky to have

saved his life, and that others, like M. Guillin-Dumoutet, for example,

have not been as fortunate.

The latter gentleman, formerly captain of a vessel belonging to the

India Company, afterwards Commandant at Senegal, now retired from active

life, occupied his chateau of Poleymieux with his young wife and two

infant children, his sisters, nieces, and sister-in-law--in all, ten

women belonging to his family and domestic service--one Negro servant

and himself; an old man of sixty years of age; here is a haunt of

militant conspirators which must be disarmed as soon as possible.[3315]

Unfortunately, a brother of M. Guillin, accused of treason to the

nation, had been arrested ten months previously, which was quite

sufficient for the clubs in the neighborhood. In the month of December,

1790, the chateau had already been ransacked by the people of the

parishes in the vicinity: nothing was found, and the Department first

censured and afterwards interdicted these arbitrary searches. On this

occasion they will manage things better.--On the 26th of June, 1791, at

ten o'clock in the morning, the municipal body of Poleymicux, along with

two other bodies in their scarves, and three hundred National Guards,

are seen approaching, under the usual pretext of searching for arms.

Madame Guillin presents herself; reminds them of the interdict of the

Department, and demands the legal order under which they act. They

refuse to give it. M. Guillin descends in his turn and offers to open

his doors to them if they will produce the order. They have no order

to show him. During the colloquy a certain man named Rosier, a former

soldier who had deserted twice, and who is now in command of the

National Guard, seizes M. Guillin by the throat; the old captain defends

himself; presents a pistol at the man, which misses fire, and then,

throwing the fellow off, withdraws into the house, closing the door

behind him.--Soon after this, the tocsin sounds in the neighborhood,

thirty parishes start up, and two thousand men arrive. Madame Guillin,

by entreaties, succeeds in having delegates appointed, chosen by the

crowd, to inspect the chateau. These delegates examine the apartments,

and declare that they can find nothing but the arms ordinarily kept on

hand. This declaration is of no effect: the multitude, whose excitement

is increased by waiting, feel their strength, and have no idea of

returning empty-handed. A volley is fired, and the chateau windows

are riddled with balls. As a last effort Madame Guillin, with her two

children in her arms, comes out, and going to the municipal officers,

calls upon them to do their duty. Far from doing this they retain her

as a hostage, and place her in such a position that, if there is firing

from the chateau, she may receive the bullets. Meanwhile, the doors are

forced, the house is pillaged from top to bottom, and then set on fire;

M. Guillin, who seeks refuge in the keep, is almost reached by the

flames. At this moment, some of the assailants, less ferocious than

the rest, prevail upon him to descend, and they answer for his life.

Scarcely has he shown himself when others fall on him; they cry that he

must be killed, that he has a life-rent of 36,000 francs from the State,

and "this will be so much saved for the nation." "He is hacked to pieces

alive;" his head is cut off and borne upon a pike; his body is cut up,

and sent piece by piece to each parish; several wash their hands in his

blood, and besmear their faces with it. It seems as if tumult, clamor,

incendiarism, robbery, and murder had aroused in them not only the cruel

instincts of the savage, but the carnivorous appetites of the brute;

some of them, seized by the gendarmerie at Chasselay, had roasted the

dead man's arm and dined upon it.[3316]--Madame Guillin, who is saved

through the compassion of two of the inhabitants of the place, succeeds,

after encountering many dangers, in reaching Lyons; she and her children

lost everything, "the chateau, its dependencies, the crop of the

preceding year, wine, grain, furniture, plate, ready money, assignats,

notes, and contracts." Ten days later, the department gives notice to

the National Assembly that "similar projects are still being plotted and

arranged, and that there are (always) threats of burning chateaux and

rent-rolls;" that no doubt of this can possibly exist: "the inhabitants

of the country only await the opportunity, to renew these scenes of

horror."[3317]

IV.--The nobles obliged to leave the rural districts.

They take refuge in towns.--The dangers they incur.--The

eighty-two gentlemen of Caen

Amidst these multiplied and reviving Jacqueries there is nothing left

but flight, and the nobles, driven out of the rural districts, seek

refuge in the towns. But here also a jacquerie awaits them. As the

effects of the Constitution are developed, successive administrations

become feebler and more partial; the unbridled populace has become

more excitable and more violent; the enthroned club has become more

suspicious and more despotic. Henceforth the club, through or in

opposition to the administrative bodies, leads the populace, and the

nobles will find it as hostile as the peasants. All their reunions,

even when liberal, are closed like that in Paris, through the illegal

interference of mobs, or through the iniquitous action of the popular

magistrates. All their associations, even when legal and salutary, are

broken up by brute force or by municipal intolerance, They are punished

for having thought of defending themselves, and slaughtered because they

try to avoid assassination.--Three or four hundred gentlemen, who

were threatened on their estates, sought refuge with their families in

Caen;[3318] and they trusted to find one there, for, by three different

resolutions, the municipal body promised them aid and protection.

Unfortunately, the club thinks otherwise, and, on August 23, 1791,

prints and posts up a list of their names and residences, declaring that

since "their suspected opinions have compelled them to abandon the rural

districts," they are emigrants in the interior;" from which it follows

that "their conduct must be scrupulously watched," because "it may be

the effect of some dangerous plot against the country." Fifteen are

especially designated; among others "the former curé of Saint-Loup, the

great bloodhound of the aristocrats, and all of them very suspicious

persons, harboring the worst intentions."--Thus denounced and singled

out, it is evident that they can no longer sleep peacefully: moreover,

now that their addresses are published, they are openly threatened with

domiciliary visits and violence. As to the administrative authorities,

their intervention cannot be expected on; the department itself gives

notice to the minister that, as the law stands, it cannot put the

chateau in the hands of the regulars,[3319] as this would, it is said,

excite the National Guard. Besides, how without an army is this post to

be wrested from the hands which hold it? It is impossible with only the

resources which the Constitution affords us." Thus, in the defense of

the oppressed, the Constitution is a dead letter.--Hence it is that the

refugees, finding protection only in themselves, undertake to help

each other. No association can be more justifiable, more pacific, more

innocent. Its object is "to demand the execution of the laws constantly

violated, and to protect persons and property." In each quarter they

will try to bring together "all good citizens;" they will form a

committee of eight members, and, in each committee, there will always

be "an officer of justice or a member of the administrative body with

an officer or subaltern of the National Guard." Should any citizen be

attacked in person or property the association will draw up a petition

in his favor. Should any particular act of violence require the

employment of public force, the members of the district will assemble

under the orders of the officer of justice and of the National Guard

to enforce obedience. "In all possible cases" they "will avoid with the

greatest care any insult of individuals; they will consider that

the object of the meeting is solely to ensure public peace, and that

protection from the law to which every citizen is entitled."--In short,

they are volunteer constables. Turn the inquiry which way they will,

a hostile municipality and a prejudiced tribunal can put no other

construction upon it; they find nothing else. The only evidence against

one of the leaders is a letter in which he tries to prevent a gentleman

from going to Coblentz, striving to prove to him that he will be more

useful at Caen. The principal evidence against the association is that

of a townsman whom they wished to enroll, and of whom they demanded his

opinions. He had stated that he was in favor of the execution of the

laws; upon which they told him: "In this case you belong to us, and

are more of an aristocrat than you think you are. Their aristocracy, in

effect, consists wholly in the suppression of brigandage. No claim is

more unpalatable, because it interposes an obstacle to the arbitrary

acts of a party which thinks it has a right to do as it pleases. On

the 4th of October the regiment of Aunis left the town, and all good

citizens were handed over to the militia, "in uniform or not," they

alone being armed. That day, for the first time in a long period, M.

Bunel, the former curé of Saint-Jean, with the consent and assistance of

his sworn successor, officiates at the mass. There is a large gathering

of the orthodox, which causes uneasiness among the patriots. The

following day M. Bunel is to say mass again; whereupon, through the

municipal authorities, the patriots forbid him to officiate, to which he

submits. Nevertheless, for lack of due notice, a crowd of the faithful

have arrived and the church is filled. A dangerous mob! The patriots

and National Guards arrive "to preserve order," which has not been

disturbed, and which they alone disturb. Threatening words are exchanged

between the servants of the nobles and the National Guard. The latter

draw their swords, and a young man is hewn down and trampled on; M. de

Saffrey, who comes to his assistance unarmed, is himself cut down and

pierced with bayonets, and two others are wounded.--Meanwhile, in a

neighboring street, M. Achard de Vagogne, seeing a man maltreated by

armed men, approaches, in order to make peace. The man is shot down

and M. Achard is covered with saber and bayonet gashes: "there is not a

thread on him which is not dyed with the blood that ran down even into

his shoes." In this condition he is led to the chateau along with M. de

Saifrey. Others break down the door of the house of M. du Rosel, an old

officer of seventy-five years, of which fifty-nine have been passed in

the service, and pursue him even over the wall of his garden. A fourth

squad seizes M. d'Héricy, another venerable officer, who, like M. du

Rosel, was ignorant of all that was going on, and was quietly leaving

for his country seat.--The town is full of tumult, and, through the

orders of the municipal authorities, the general alarm is sounded.

The time for the special constables to act has come; about sixty

gentlemen, with a number of merchants and artisans, set out. According

to the rules of their association, and with significant scruple, they

beg an Officer of the National Guard, who happens to be passing, to put

himself at their head; they reach the Place Saint-Sauveur, encounter the

superior officer sent after them by the municipal authorities, and, at

his first command, follow him to the Hôtel-de-Ville. On reaching this,

without any resistance on their part, they are arrested, disarmed, and

searched. The rules and regulations of their league are found on their

persons; they are evidently hatching a counter-revolution. The uproar

against them is terrible. "To keep them safe," they are conducted to the

chateau, while many of them are cruelly treated on the way by the

crowd. Others, seized in their houses--M. Levaillant and a servant of M.

d'Héricy--are carried off bleeding and pierced with bayonets. Eighty-two

prisoners are thus collected, while fears are constantly entertained

that they may escape. "Their bread and meat are cut up into little

pieces, to see that nothing is concealed therein; the surgeons, who are

likewise treated as aristocrats, are denied access to them." Nocturnal

visits are, at the same time, paid to their houses; every stranger is

ordered to present himself at the Hôtel-de-Ville, to state why he comes

to the town to reside, and to give up his arms; every nonjuring priest

is forbidden to say mass. The Department, which is disposed to resist,

has its hands tied and confesses its powerlessness. "The people," it

writes, "know their strength: they know that we have no power; excited

by disreputable citizens, they permit whatever serves their passions or

their interests; they influence our deliberations, and force us to those

which, under other circumstances, we should carefully avoid."--Three

days after this the victors celebrate their triumph "with drums, music,

and lighted torches; the people are using hammers to destroy on the

mansions the coats-of-arms which had previously been covered over with

plaster;" the defeat of the aristocrats is accomplished.--And yet their

innocence is so clearly manifest that the Legislative Assembly itself

cannot help recognizing it. After eleven weeks of durance the order is

given to set them free, with the exception of two, a youth of less

than eighteen years and an old man, almost an octogenarian, on whom two

letters, misunderstood, still leave a shadow of suspicion.--But it is

not certain that the people are disposed to give them up. The National

Guard refuses to discharge them in open daylight and serve as their

escort. Even the evening before numerous groups of women, a few men

mingled with them, talk of murdering all those fellows the moment they

set foot outside the chateau." They have to be let out at two o'clock

in the morning, secretly, under a strong guard, and to leave the town

at once as six months before they left the rural districts.--Neither in

country nor in the town[3320] are they under the protection of civil

or religious law; a gentleman, who is not compromised in the affair,

remarks that their situation is worse than that of Protestants and

vagabonds during the worst years of the Ancient Régime of them and who

abuse the use of them? Why should one be on an equality for purposes of

payment, and distinguished?

"Does not the law allow (nonjuring) priests the liberty of saying mass?

Why then can we not listen to their mass except at the risk of our

lives? Does not the law command all citizens to preserve the public

peace? Why then are those whom the cry to arms has summoned forth to

maintain public order assailed as aristocrats? Why is the refuge of

citizens which the laws have declared sacred, violated without orders,

without accusation, without any appearance of wrong-doing? Why are all

prominent citizens and those who are well off disarmed in preference to

others? Are weapons exclusively made for those but lately deprived only

for purposes of annoyance and insult?"

He has spoken right. Those who now rule form an aristocracy in

an inverse sense, contrary to the law, and yet more contrary to

nature.[3321] For, by a violent inversion, the lower grades in the

graduated scale of civilization and culture now are found uppermost,

while the superior grades are found at the uniform. The Constitution

having suppressed inequality, this has again arisen in an inverse sense.

The populace, both of town and country, taxes, imprisons, pillages, and

slays more arbitrarily, more brutally, more unjustly than feudal barons,

and for its serfs or villains it has its ancient chieftains.

V.--Persecutions in private life.

Let us suppose that, in order not to excite suspicion, they are

content to be without arms, to form no more associations, not to attend

elections, to shut themselves up at home, to strictly confine themselves

within the harmless precincts of domestic life. The same distrust, the

same animosity, still pursues them there.--At Cahors,[3322] where

the municipal authorities, in spite of the law, had just expelled the

Carthusians who, under legal sanction, chose to remain and live

in common, two of the monks, before their departure, give to M. de

Beaumont, their friend and neighbor, four dwarf pear-trees and some

onions in blossom in their garden. On the strength of this, the

municipal body decree that

"the sieur Louis de Beaumont, formerly count, is guilty of having

audaciously and maliciously damaged national property," condemns him

to pay a fine of three hundred livres, and orders "that the four

pear-trees, pulled up in the so-called Carthusian garden, be brought on

the following day, Wednesday, to the door of the said sieur de Beaumont,

and there remain for four consecutive days, guarded, day and night, by

two fusiliers, at the expense of the said sieur de Beaumont; and upon

the said trees shall be placed the following inscription, to wit:

Louis de Beaumont, destroyer of the national property. And the judgment

herewith rendered shall be printed to the number of one thousand

copies, read, published, and posted at the expense of the said sieur

de Beaumont, and duly addressed throughout the department of Lot to the

districts and municipalities thereof, as well as to all societies of the

Friends of the Constitution and of Liberty."