a knowledge of the
new sovereign, we must first observe him on a limited stage.

On the reception of the news of the 10th of August, the Jacobins of
Saint-Afrique, a small town of the Aveyron,[3212] likewise undertook to
save the country, and, to this end, like their fellows in other boroughs
of the district, they organized themselves into an "Executive Power."
This institution is of an old date, especially in the South; it had
flourished for eighteen months from Lyons to Montpellier, from Agen
to Nimes; but after the interregnum, its condition is still more
flourishing; it consists of a secret society, the object of which is to
carry out practically the motions and instructions of the club.[3213]
Ordinarily, they work at night, wearing masks or slouched hats, with
long hair falling over the face. A list of their names, each with a
number opposite to it, is kept at the meeting-place of the society. A
triangular club, decked with a red ribbon, serves them both as weapon
and badge; with this club, each member "may go anywhere," and do what
seems good to him. At Saint-Afrique they number about eighty, among whom
must be counted the rascals forming the seventh company of Tarn, staying
in the town; their enrollment in the band is effected by constantly
"preaching pillage to them," and by assuring them that the contents
of the chateaux in the vicinity belong to them.[3214]--Not that
the chateaux excite any fear; most of them are empty; neither in
Saint-Afrique nor in the environs do the men of the ancient regime form
a party; for many months orthodox priests and the nobles have had
to fly, and now the well-to-do people are escaping. The population,
however, is Catholic; many of the shop-keepers, artisans, and farmers
are discontented, and the object now is to make these laggards keep
step.--In the first place, they order women of every condition,
work-girls and servants, to attend mass performed by the sworn cure,
for, if they do not, they will be made acquainted with the cudgel.--In
the second place, all the suspected are disarmed; they enter their
houses during the night in force, unexpectedly, and, besides their gun,
carry off their provisions and money. A certain grocer who persists
in his lukewarmness is visited a second time; seven or eight men, one
evening, break open his door with a stick of timber; he takes refuge on
his roof, dares not descend until the following day at dawn, and
finds that everything in his store