; at M. de
Garantot's alone the loss is estimated at more than 100,000 crowns at
least."--The same instinct of destruction prevails everywhere, a sort
of envious fury against all who possess, command, or enjoy anything.
At Maubeuge, on the 27th of July, at the very assembly of the
representatives of the commune,[1317] the rabble interferes directly in
its usual fashion. A band of nail and gun-makers takes possession of the
town-hall, and obliges the mayor to reduce the price of bread. Almost
immediately after this another band follows uttering cries of death,
and smashes the windows, while the garrison, which has been ordered out,
quietly contemplates the damage done. Death to the mayor, to all rulers,
and to all employees! The rioters force open the prisons, set the
prisoners free, and attack the tax-offices. The octroi offices are
demolished from top to bottom: they pull down the harbor offices and
throw the scales and weights into the river. All the custom and
excise stores are carried off; and the officials are compelled to give
acquaintances. The houses of the registrar and of the sheriff, that of
the revenue comptroller, two hundred yards outside the town, are sacked;
the doors and the windows are smashed, the furniture and linen is torn
to shreds, and the plate and jewelry is thrown into the wells. The same
havoc is committed in the mayor's town-house, also in his country-house
a league off. "Not a window, not a door, not one article or eatable,"
is preserved; their work, moreover, is conscientiously done, without
stopping a moment, "from ten in the evening up to ten in the morning on
the following day." In addition to this the mayor, who has served
for thirty-four years, resigns his office at the solicitation of the
well-disposed but terrified people, and leaves the country.--At
Rouen, after the 24th of July,[1318] a written placard shows, by its
orthography and its style, what sort of intellects composed it and what
kind of actions are to follow it:

"Nation, you have here four heads to strike off, those of Pontcarry
(the first president), Maussion (the intendant), Godard de Belboeuf (the
attorney-general), and Durand (the attorney of the King in the town).
Without this we are lost, and if you do not do it, people will take you
for a heartless nation."

Nothing could be more explicit. The municipal body, however, to whom
the Parliament denounces this list of proscriptions, replies, with its
forced optimism, t