书城公版The Origins of Contemporary France
19097600000260

第260章

[21] There is a similar occurrence at Strasbourg, a few days after the sacking of the town-hall. The municipality having given each man of the garrison twenty sous, the soldiers abandon their post, set the prisoners free at the Pont-Couvert, feast publicly in the streets with the women taken out of the penitentiary, and force innkeepers and the keepers of drinking-places to give up their provisions. The shops are all closed, and, for twenty-four hours, the officers are not obeyed. (De Dampmartin, I. 105.)[22] Albert Babeau, I. 187-273. -- Moniteur, II. 379. (Extract from the provost's verdict of November 27, 1789.)[23] Moniteur, ibid. Picard, the principal murderer, confessed "that he had made him suffer a great deal; that the said sieur Huez did not die until they came near the Chaudron Inn ; that he nevertheless intended to make him suffer more by stabbing him in the neck at the corner of each street, (and) by contriving it so that he might do it often, as long as there was life in him; that the day on which M. Huez died yielded him ten francs, together with the neck-buckle of M. Hues, found on him when he was arrested in his flight."[24] Mercure de France, , September 26, 1789. Letters of the officers of the Bourbon regiment and of members of the general committee of Caen. - Floquet, VII. 545.

[25] "Archives Nationales," H. 1453. - Ibid. D. XXIX. I.

Note of M. de la Tour-du-Pin, October 28th.

[26] Decree, February 5, 1789, enforced May 1st following.

[27] "Archives Nationales," D. XXIX. I. Letter of the count de Montausier, August 8th, with notes by M. Paulian, director of the excise (an admirable letter, modest and liberal, and ending by demanding a pardon for people led astray). -- H. 1453. Letter of the attorney of the election district of Falaise, July 17th, etc. -- Moniteur, I. 303, 387, 505 (sessions of August 7th and 27th and of September 23rd). "The royal revenues are diminishing steadily."-- Buchez and Roux, III. 219 (session of October 24, 1789).

Discourse of a deputation from Anjou: "Sixty thousand men are armed;the barriers have been destroyed, the clerks' horses have been sold by auction; the employees have been told to withdraw from the province within eight days. The inhabitants have declared that they will not pay taxes so long as the salt-tax exists.

[28] "Archives Nationales,"F7 3253 (Letter of September 8, 1789).

[29] Arthur Young, September 30th. "It is being said that every rusty gun in Provence is at work, killing all sorts of birds; the shot has fallen five or six times in my chaise and about my ears." -- Beugnot, I.142. - "Archives Nationales," D. XXIX. I. Letter of the Chevalier d'Allonville, September 8, 1789 (Near Bar-sur-Aube). "The peasants go in armed bands into the woods belonging to the Abbey of Trois-Fontaines, which they cut down. They saw up the oaks and transport them on wagons to Pont-Saint-Dizier, where they sell them. In other places they fish in the ponds and break the embankments."[30] "Archives Nationales," D. XXIX. 1. Letter of the assessor of the police of Saint-Flour, October 3, 1789. On the 31st of July, a rumor is spread that the brigands are coming. On the 1st of August the peasants arm themselves. "They amuse themselves by drinking, awaiting the arrival of the brigands; the excitement increases to such an extent as to make them believe that M. le Comte d'Espinchal had arrived in disguise the evening before at Massiac, that he was the author of the troubles disturbing the province at this time, and that he was concealed in his chateau." On the strength of this shots are fired into the windows, and there are searches, etc.

[31] "Archives Nationales," D, XXIX, I, Letter of Etienne Fermier, Naveinne, September 18th (it is possible that the author, for the sake of caution, took a fictitious name). - The manuscript correspondence of M. Boullé, deputy of Pontivy, to his constituents, is a type of this declamatory and incendiary writing. - Letter of the consuls, priests, and merchants of Puy-en-Velay, September 16th.

- " The Ancient Régime," p. 396.

[32] "Archives Nationales," D. XXIX. 1. Letter of M. Despretz-Montpezat, a former artillery officer, July 24th (with several other signatures). On the same day the alarm bell is sounded In fifty villages on the rumor spreading that 7,000 brigands, English and Breton, were invading the country.