etter "which summons them to attack all the country
gentlemen round about, and to massacre without mercy all those who
refuse to renounce their privileges.... promising them that not only
will their crimes go unpunished, but that they will even be rewarded."
M. Despretz-Montpezat, correspondent of the deputies of the nobles,
is seized, and dragged with his son to the dwelling of the
procurator-fiscal, to force him to give his signature; the inhabitants
are forbidden to render him assistance "on pain of death and fire."
"Sign," they exclaim, "or we will tear out your heart, and set fire to
this house!" At this moment the neighboring notary, who is doubtless an
accomplice, appears with a stamped paper, and says to him, "Monsieur,
I have just come from Niort, where the Third-Estate has done the same
thing to all the gentlemen of the town; one, who refused, was cut to
pieces before our eyes."--"We are compelled to sign renunciations of our
privileges, and give our assent to one and the same taxation, as if
the nobles had not already done so." The band gives notice that it will
proceed in the same fashion with all the chateaux in the vicinity, and
terror precedes or follows them. "Nobody dares write," M. Despretz
sends word; "I attempt it at the risk of my life."--Nobles and prelates
become objects of suspicion everywhere; village committees open their
letters, and they have to suffer their houses to be searched.[1333] They
are forced to adopt the new cockade: to be a gentleman, and not wear it,
is to deserve hanging. At Mamers, in Maine, M. de Beauvoir refuses to
wear it, and is at the point of being put into the pillory and felled.
Near La F1eche, M. de Brissac is arrested, and a message is sent
to Paris to know if he shall be taken there, "or be beheaded in the
meantime." Two deputies of the nobles, MM. de Montesson and de Vasse who
had come to ask the consent of their constituents to their joining the
Third-Estate, are recognized near Mans; their honorable scruples and
their pledges to the constituents are considered of no importance, nor
even the step that they are now taking to fulfill them; it suffices that
they voted against the Third-Estate at Versailles; the populace pursues
them and breaks up their carriages, and pillages their trunks.--Woe to
the nobles, especially if they have taken any part in local rule, and
if they are opposed to popular panics! M. Cureau, deputy-mayor of
Mans,[1334] had issued orders during th