Laon, Chauny, and St.-Gobain--The French Revolution and Spanish soda--The most extensive chemical works in France--A miniature Rotterdam--A Cite Ouvriere--The religious war in Chauny--Local and immigrant labour--M. Allain-Targe on Boulanger, the High Court of Justice, common sense and common honesty---French elections, matters of bargain and sale--'The blackguardocracy'--Sketches by a Republican minister--French freemasonry a persecuting sect--Their power in the Government--Utterly unlike the freemasonry of England, Germany, or America--The war against Christianity in France and Spanish America--1867 and the industrial progress of France--Extent of the chemical works of France--Retiring pensions for workmen--Chauny in the olden time--How the honest burghers freed their city in 1432--A contrast with the rioters of the Bastille in 1789--Henri IV. and La Belle Gabrielle--Chauny and the Revolution--The murder of d'Estaing--Chauny acclaims the Restoration, and gives a gold medal to the Prussian commandant--Public charity and public education in the 12th century--Benevolent foundations pillaged in 1793--Law and order under the _ancien regime_--A canal in the law courts--An enterprising American turns rubbish into indiarubber at Chauny 162-185 CHAPTER IX IN THE AISNE--(_continued_) Laon--A feudal fortress home--Chauny and the green monkeys of Rabelais--The festival of the jongleurs and the learned dogs--A damsel of Chauny on English good sense and Queen Victoria--A region of parks and chateaux--The cradle of the French Monarchy--How the Revolution robbed France--The rural reign of pillage and murder--Horrors committed in the provinces during 1789--Arthur Young and Gouverneur Morris on the general depravation and lawlessness--The National Assembly a mere noisy 'mob'--The outbreak of crime which preceded the Terror--The truth about Madame Roland--Her hatred of Marie Antoinette and her thirst for blood--The legend of the Gironde--Brissot de Warville on robbery as a virtuous action--The relations of the French Revolution to property--France more free before 1789 than after it--The laws against emigrants--Girls of fourteen condemned to death--Emigration made a crime, that property might be pillaged--How Irene de Tencin defended the family estate--The story of the Saporta family--The Laonnais in the 18th century--Wide-spread ruin of its churches, convents, and chateaux--Destruction of accumulated capital--How syndicates of rogues stole bronzes, brasswork, and monuments--The story of two chateaux--The bishop's chateau at Anizy--The burghers and the seigneurs in the 16th century--The local 'directory' in 1790--Wreck, ruin, and robbery--The Chateau of Pinon--Once the property of a granddaughter of Edward III. of England--A domain of the Duc d'Orleans--A tragedy of love and murder--Death of the Marquis