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:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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