town, the men without their guns and the officers without their swords.
Their arms are stolen, the people seize the suspected, the street-lamp
is hauled down and the noose is made ready. Cayol, the flower-girl,
is hung. The municipality, with great difficulty, saves one man who is
already lifted by the rope two feet from the ground, and obtains for
three others "a temporary refuge" in prison.
Henceforth there is no authority at the department headquarters,
or rather it has changed hands. Another Directory, more pliable, is
installed in the place of the fugitive Directory. Of the thirty-six
administrators who form the Council only twelve are present at the
election. Of the nine elected only six consent to sit, while often
only three are found at its sessions, which three, to recruit their
colleagues, are obliged to pay them.[2418] Hence, notwithstanding their
position is the best in the department, they are worse treated and more
unfortunate than their servants outside. The delegates of the club, with
the municipal officers of Marseilles seated alongside of them, oblige
them either to keep silent, or to utter what they dictate to them.[2419]
"Our arms are tied," writes one of them, "we are wholly under the yoke"
of these intruders. "We have twice in succession seen more than three
hundred men, many of them with guns and pistols, enter the hall and
threaten us with death if we refused them what they asked. We have seen
infuriate motionnaires, nearly all belonging to Avignon, mount the desks
of the Directory, harangue their comrades and excite them to rioting and
crime. "You must decide between life or death," they exclaimed to us,
"you have only a quarter of an hour to choose." "National guards have
offered their sabers through the windows, left open on account of the
extreme heat, to those around us and made signs to them to cut our
throats."--Thus fashioned, reduced and drilled, the Directory is simply
an instrument in the hands of the Marseilles demagogues. Camoïn, Bertin
and Rebecqui, the worst agitators and usurpers, rule there without
control. Rebecqui and Bertin, appointed delegates in connection with
matters in Arles, have themselves empowered to call for defensive
troops; they immediately demand them for attack, to which the Directory
vainly remonstrates; they declare to it that "not being under its
inspection, it has no authority over them; being independent of it, they
have no orders to receive from it nor to render to it any account of
their conduct." So much the worse for the Directory on attempting to
revoke their powers. Bertin informs its vice-president that, if it
dares do this he will cut off his head. They reply to the Minister's
observations with the utmost insolence.[2420] They glory in the boldness
of the stroke and prepare another, their march on Aix being only the
first halt in the long-meditated campaign which involves the possession
of Arles.
III.--The Constitutionalists of Arles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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