extremity of France. There,[3253]
on the canal of the Deux-Mers, at Carcassonne, the population has seized
three boats loaded with grain, demanded provisions, then a lower prices
of bread, then guns and cannon from the magazine, and, lastly, the heads
of the administrators; an inspector-general has been wounded by an axe,
and the syndic-attorney of the department, M. Verdie; massacred.--The
Minister follows with his eye the road from Carcassonne to Bordeaux, and
on the right and on the left he finds traces of blood. At Castres,[3254]
a report is spread that a dealer in grain was trying to raise the price,
whereupon a mob gathers, and, to save the dealer, he is placed in the
guard-house. The volunteers, however, force open the guard-house, and
throw the man out of the first-story window; they then finish him off
with "blows with clubs and weights," drag his body along the street
and cast it into the river.--The evening before, at Clairac,[3255] M.
Lartigue-Langa, an unsworn priest, pursued through the street by a troop
of men and women, who wanted to remove his cassock and set him on an
ass, found refuge, with great difficulty, in his country-house. They
go there for him, however, fetch him back to the public promenade,
and there they kill him. A number of brave fellows who interfered were
charged with incivism, and severely handled. Repression is impossible;
the department writes to the Minister that "at this time it would be
impolitic to follow the matter up." Roland knows that by experience. The
letters in his hands show him that there, as in Paris, murder engenders
murder. M. d'Alespee; a gentleman, has just been assassinated at Nerac;
"all reputable citizens formed around him a rampart with their bodies,"
but the rabble prevailed, and the murderers, "through their obscurity,"
escaped.--The Minister's finger stops at Bordeaux. There the federation
festivities are marked with a triple assassination.[3256] In order to
let this dangerous moment pass by, M. de Langoiran, vicar-general of
the archbishopric, had retired half a league off; in the village of
Cauderan, to the residence of an octogenarian priest, who, like himself;
had never meddled with public matters. On the 15th of July the National
Guards of the village, excited by the speeches of the previous night,
have come to the residence to pick them up, and moreover, a third priest
belonging in the neighborhood. There is nothing to lay to their charge;
neither the mu