gone to Oison and Chaussy,
where everything is smashed, broken up and carried off On the 16th of
September six armed men went to the house of M. de Vaudeuil and obliged
him to return the sum of 300 francs, for penalties pretended to have
been paid by them. We have been notified that M. Dedeley will be visited
at Acheres for the same purpose to-day. M. de Lory has been similarly
threatened... Finally, all those people there say that they want no more
local administrations or tribunals, that the law is in their own hands,
and they will execute it. In this extremity we have decided on the only
safe course, which is to silently accept all the outrages inflicted upon
us. We have not called upon you for protection, for we are well aware
of the embarrassment you labor under."--The best part of the National
Guard, indeed, having been disarmed at the county-town, there is no
longer an armed force to put riots down. Consequently, at this same
date,[3259] the populace, increased by the afflux of "strangers" and
ordinary nomads, hang a corn-inspector, plant his head on the end of a
pike, drag his body through the streets, sack five houses and burn the
furniture of a municipal officer in front of his own door. Thereupon,
the obedient municipality sets the arrested rioters free, and lowers the
price of bread one-sixth. Above the Loire, the dispatches of Orne and
Calvados complete the picture. "Our district," writes a lieutenant of
the gendarmerie,[3260] "is a prey to brigandage... About thirty rascals
have just sacked the chateau of Dampierre. Calls for men are constantly
made upon us," which we cannot satisfy, "because the call is general
on all sides." The details are curious, and here, notwithstanding the
Minister's familiarity with popular misdeeds, he cannot avoid noting
one extortion of a new species. "The inhabitants of the villages[3261]
collect together, betake themselves to different chateaux, seize the
wives and children of their proprietors, and keep them as bail for
promises of reimbursement which they force the latter to sign, not
merely for feudal taxes, but, again, for expenses to which this taxation
may have given rise," first under the actual proprietor and then under
his predecessors; in the mean time they install themselves on the
premises, demand payments for their time, devastate the buildings on the
place, and sell the furniture.--All this is accompanied with the
usual slaughter. The Directory of the department