[Footnote 1346: Doniol, "La Révolution et la Féodalité," p.60 (a few days after the 4th of August).--"Archives Nationales," H. 784. Letters of M. de Langeron, military commander at Besançon, October 16th and 18th.--Ibid. , D. XXIX. I. Letter of the same, September 3rd.--Arthur Young (in Provence, at the house of Baron de la Tour-d'Aignes). "The baron is an enormous sufferer by the Revolution; a great extent of country which belonged in absolute right to his ancestors, has been granted for quit-rents, ceus, and other feudal payments, so that there is no comparison between the lands retained and those thus granted by his family. . . . The solid payments which the Assembly have declared to be redeemable are every hour falling to nothing, without a shadow of recompense. . . The situation of the nobility in this country is pitiable; they are under apprehensions that nothing will be left them, but simply such houses as the mob allows to stand unburned; that the small farmers will retain their farms without paying the landlord his half of the produce; and that, in case of such a refusal, there is actually neither law nor authority in the country to prevent it. This chateau, splendid even in ruins, with the fortune and lives of the owners, is at the mercy of an armed rabble."] CHAPTER IV. PARIS. I.--Paris. Powerlessness and discords of the authorities.--The people, king. The powerlessness, indeed, of the heads of the Government, and the lack of discipline among all its subordinates, are much greater in the capital than in the provinces.--Paris possesses a mayor, Bailly; but "from the first day, and in the easiest manner possible,"[1401] his municipal council, that is to say, "the assembly of the representatives of the commune, has accustomed itself to carry on the government alone, overlooking him entirely." There is a central administration, the municipal council, presided over by the mayor; but, "at this time, authority is everywhere except where the preponderating authority should be; the districts have delegated it and at the same time retained it;" each of them acts as if it were alone and supreme.--There are secondary powers, the district-committees, each with its president, its clerk, its offices, and commissioners; but the mobs of the street march on without awaiting their orders; while the people, shouting under their" windows, impose their will on them;--in short, says Bailly again, "everybody knew how to command, but nobody knew how to obey." "Imagine," writes Loustalot[1402] himself; "a man whose feet, hands, and limbs possessed each its own intelligence and will, whose one leg would wish to walk when the other one wanted to rest, whose throat would close when the stomach demanded food, whose mouth would sing when the eyelids were weighed down with sleep; and you will have a striking picture of the condition of things in the capital"