nicipal officers, nor the justices before whom they are
brought, can avoid declaring them innocent. As a last recourse, they are
conducted to Bordeaux, before the Directory of the department. But it is
getting dark, and the riotous crowd becoming impatient, makes an
attack on them. The octogenarian "receives so many blows that he cannot
recover"; the abbe du Puy is knocked down and dragged along by a rope
attached to his feet; M. de Langoirac's head is cut off, carried about
on a pike, taken to his house and presented to the servant, who is
told that "her master will not come home to supper." The torment of the
priests has lasted from five o'clock in the morning to seven o'clock in
the evening, and the municipal authorities were duly advised; but
they cannot put themselves out of the way to give succor; they are too
seriously occupied in erecting a liberty-pole.

Route from Bordeaux to Caen.--The Minister's finger turns to the north,
and stops at Limoges. The day following the federation has been here
celebrated the same as at Bordeaux.[3257] An unsworn priest, the abbe
Chabrol, assailed by a gang of men and women, is first conducted to
the guard-house and then to the dwelling of the juge-de-paix; for his
protection a warrant of arrest is gotten out, and he is kept under
guard, in sight, by four chasseurs, in one of the rooms. But the
populace are not satisfied with this. In vain do the municipal officers
appeal to it, in vain do the gendarmes interpose themselves between it
and the prisoner; it rushes in upon them and disperses them. Meanwhile,
volleys of stones smash in the windows, and the entrance door yields to
the blows of axes; about thirty of the villains scale the windows, and
pass the priest down like a bale of goods. A few yards off, "struck down
with clubs and other instruments," he draws his last breath, his head
"crushed" by twenty mortal wounds.--Farther up, towards Orleans, Roland
reads the following dispatches, taken from the file for Loiret:[3258]
"Anarchy is at its height," writes one of the districts to the Directory
of the department; "there is no longer recognition of any authority; the
administrators of the district and of the municipalities are insulted,
and are powerless to enforce respect.... Threats of slaughter, of
destroying houses and giving them up to pillage prevail; plans are made
to tear down all the chateaux. The municipal authorities of Acheres,
along with many of the inhabitants, have