h each other the wealth of Lyons. This huge cake belongs
to them; they do not allow that strangers, Parisians, should have a
slice,[33130] and they intend to eat the whole of it, at discretion,
without control, even to the last crumb. As to their mode of operations,
it consists in "selling justice, in trading on denunciations, in holding
under sequestration at least four thousand households," in putting seals
everywhere on dwellings and warehouses, in not summoning interested
parties who might watch their proceedings, in expelling women, children
and servants who might testify to their robberies, in not drawing up
inventories, in installing themselves as "guardians at five francs a
day," themselves or their boon companions, and in "general squandering,
in league with the administrators." It is impossible to stay their
hands or repress them, even for the representatives. Take them in the
act,[33131] and you must shut your eyes or they will all shout at the
oppression of patriots; they do this systematically so that nobody may
be followed up.

We passed an order forbidding any authority to remove seals without our
consent, and, in spite of the prohibition, they broke into a storehouse
under sequestration,.... forced the locks and pillaged, under our own
eyes, the very house we occupy. And who are these devastators? Two
commissioners of the Committee who emptied the storehouse without our
warrant, and even without having any power from the Committee."--It is
a sack in due form, and day after day; it began on the 10th of October,
1793; it continued after, without interruption, and we have just seen
that, on Floreal 28, year II., that is to say, April 26, 1794, after one
hundred and twenty-three days, it is still maintained.

The last mad scramble and the most extensive of all.--In spite of the
subterfuges of its agents, the Republic, having stolen immensely, and
although robbed in its turn, could still hold on to a great deal; and
first, to articles of furniture which could not be easily abstracted,
to large lots of merchandise, also to the vast spoil of the palaces,
chateaux and churches; next, and above all, to real estate, fixtures and
buildings. To meet its expenses it put all that up for sale, and whoever
wants anything has only to come forward as a buyer, the last bidder
becoming the legal owner and at a cheap rate. The wood cut down in one
year very often pays for a whole forest.[33132] Sometimes a chateau can
be pa