an interest in law and order," nearly five thousand families, have
emigrated; their houses in town and in the country are pillaged, while
in the surrounding boroughs, along the road leading from Arles to
Marseilles, the villains forming the hard core of the Marseilles army,
rove about and gorge themselves as in a vanquished country.[2430]
They eat and drink voraciously, force the closets, carry off linen and
food, steal horses and valuables, smash the furniture, tear up books,
and burn papers.[2431] All this is only the appropriate punishment of
the aristocrats. Moreover, it is no more than right that patriots should
be indemnified for their toil, and a few blows too many are not out
of place in securing the rule of the right party.--For example, on the
false report of order being disturbed at Château-Renard, Bertin and
Rebecqui send off a detachment of men, while the municipal body in
uniform, followed by the National Guard, with music and flags, comes
forth to meet and salute it. Without uttering a word of warning, the
Marseilles troop falls upon the cortège, strikes down the flags, disarms
the National Guard, tears the epaulettes off the officers' shoulders,
drags the mayor to the ground by his scarf, pursues the counselors,
sword in hand, puts the mayor and syndic-attorney in arrest, and, during
the night, sacks four dwellings, the whole under the direction of
three Jacobins of the place under indictment for recent crimes or
misdemeanors. Henceforth at Château-Renard they will look twice before
subjecting patriots to indictment.[2432]--At Vélaux "the country house
of the late seignior is sacked, and everything is carried away, even
to the tiles and window-glass." A troop of two hundred men "overrun the
village, levy contributions, and put all citizens who are well-off under
bonds for considerable sums." Camoïn, the Marseille chief, one of the
new department administrators, who is in the neighborhood, lays his
hand on everything that is fit to be taken, and, a few days after this,
30,000 francs are found in his carpet-bag.-Taught by the example others
follow and the commotion spreads. In every borough or petty town the
club profits by these acts to satiate its ambition its greed, and its
hatred. That of Apt appeals to its neighbors, whereupon 1,500 National
Guards of Gordes, St. Saturnin, Gouls and Lacoste, with a thousand women
and children armed with clubs and scythes, arrive one morning before
the town. On being asked by whose orders they come in this fashion,
they reply, "by the orders which their patriotism has given them."--"The
fanatics," or partisans of the sworn priests, "are the cause of their
journey": they therefore "want lodgings at the expense of the fanatics
only." The three day's occupation results for the latter and for the
town in a cost of 20,000 livres.[2433] They begin by breaking everything
in the church of the Récollets, and wall up its doors. They then expel
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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