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