or the Feuillant deputies of the Legislative Assembly, "with
Ramond and Jaucourt at their head,"[3207]

* as for "all those who consented to soil their hands with the profits
of the civil list,"

* as for "the 40,000 hired assassins who were gathered at the palace on
the night of August 9-10,

they are all (say the Jacobins) furious monsters, who ought to be
strangled to the last one. People! you have risen to your feet; stand
firm until not one of these conspirators remains alive. Your humanity
requires you for once to show yourselves inexorable. Strike terror to
the wicked. The proscriptions which we impose on you as a duty, are the
sacred wrath of your country."

There is no mistaking this; it is a tocsin sounding against all the
powers that be, against all social superiority, against priests and
nobles, proprietors, capitalists, the leaders of business and industry;
it is sounding, in short, against the whole elite of France, whether of
old or recent origin. The Jacobins of Paris, by their journals, their
examples, their missionaries, give the signal; and in the provinces
their kindred spirits, imbued with the same principles, only wait the
summons to hurl themselves forward.

II.--In several departments it establishes itself in advance.

An instance of this in the Var.

In many departments[3208] they have forestalled the summons. In the Var,
for example, pillages and proscriptions have begun with the month of
May. According to custom, they first seize upon the castles and the
monasteries, although these have become national property, at one time
alleging as a reason for this that the administration "is too slow
in carrying out sentence against the emigres," and again, that "the
chateau, standing on an eminence, weighs upon the inhabitants."[3209]
There is scarcely a village in France that does not contain twoscore
wretches who are always ready to line their pockets, which is just
the number of thieves who thoroughly sacked the chateau of Montaroux,
carrying off "furniture, produce, clothing, even the jugs and bottles in
the cellar." There are the same doings by the same band at the chateau
of Tournon; the chateau of Salerne is burned, that of Flagose is pulled
down; the canal of Cabris is destroyed; then the convent of Montrieux,
the chateaux of Grasse, of Canet, of Regusse, of Brovaz, and many
others, all devastated, and the devastations are made "daily."--It is
impossible to suppress this count