in the three
Legations, in the State of Venice, in Modena, and the States of the
Church, 65 millions;

* diamonds, plate, gold crosses and other depots of the Monts.de-piete
at Milan, Bologna, Ravenna, Modena, Venice and Rome, 56 millions;

* furniture and works of art at Milan and in other towns, 5 millions;

* furniture and works of art in the Venetian towns and palaces of
Brenta, 6, 500,000;

* the spoils of Rome sacked, as formerly by the mercenaries of the Duc
de Bourbon, collections of antiques, pictures, bronzes, statues, the
treasures of the Vatican and of palaces, jewels, even the pastoral ring
of the Pope, which the Directorial commissary himself wrests from the
Pope's finger, 43 millions,

and all this without counting analogous articles, and especially
direct assessments levied on this or that individual as rich or a
proprietor,[51124] veritable ransoms, similar to those demanded by the
bandits of Calabria and Greece, extorted from any traveler they surprise
on the highway.--

Naturally operations of this kind cannot be carried on without
instruments of constraint; the Parisian manipulators must have military
automatons, "saber hilts" in sufficient numbers. Now, through constant
slashing, a good many hilts break, and the broken ones must be replaced;
in October, 1798, 200,000 new ones are required, while the young men
drafted for the purpose fail to answer the summons and fly, and even
resist with arms, especially in Belgium,[51125] by maintaining a
revolt for many months, with this motto: "Better die here than
elsewhere."[51126] To compel their return, they are hunted down and
brought to the depot with their hands tied. If they hide away, soldiers
are stationed in their parents' houses. If the conscript or drafted man
has sought refuge in a foreign country, even in an allied country as in
Spain, he is officially inscribed on the list of emigres, and therefore,
in case of return, shot within twenty-four hours; meanwhile, his
property is sequestrated and likewise that of "his father, mother and
grandparents."[51127]--"Formerly," says a contemporary, "reason and
philosophy thundered against the rigors of punishment inflicted on
deserters; but, since French reason has perfected Liberty it is no
longer the small class of regular soldiers whose evasion is punished
with death, but an entire generation. An extreme penalty no longer
suffices for these legislative philanthropists: they add confiscation,
they