n the 18th those of
Lure, Bithaine, and Molans.[1335] On the 29th, an accident which occurs
with some fire-works at a popular festival at the house of M. de Mesmay,
leads the lower class to believe that the invitation extended to
them was a trap, and that there was a desire to get rid of them by
treachery.[1336] Seized with rage they set fire to the chateau, and
during the following week[1337] destroy three abbeys, ruin eleven
chateaux and pillage others. "All records are destroyed, the registers
and court-rolls are carried off; and the deposits violated."--Starting
from this spot, "the hurricane of insurrection" stretches over the
whole of Alsace from Huningue to Landau.[1338] The insurgents display
placards, signed Louis, stating that for a certain lapse of time they
shall be permitted to exercise justice themselves, and, in Sundgau, a
well-dressed weaver, decorated with a blue belt, passes for a prince,
the King's second son. They begin by falling on the Jews, their
hereditary leeches; they sack their dwellings, divide their money among
themselves, and hunt them down like so many fallow-deer. At Bale alone,
it is said that twelve hundred of these unfortunate fugitives arrived
with their families.--The distance between the Jew creditor and the
Christian proprietor is not great, and this is soon cleared. Remiremont
is only saved by a detachment of dragoons. Eight hundred men attack
the chateau of Uberbruenn. The abbey of Neubourg is taken by storm. At
Guebwiller, on the 31st of July, five hundred peasants, subjects of the
abbey of Murbach, make a descent on the abbot's palace and on the house
of the canons. Cupboards, chests, beds, windows, mirrors, frames, even
the tiles of the roof and the hinges of the casements are hacked
to pieces: "They kindle fires on the beautiful inlaid floors of the
apartments, and there burn up the library and the title-deeds." The
abbot's superb carriage is so broken up that not a wheel remains entire.
"Wine streams through the cellars. One cask of sixteen hundred measures
is half lost; the plate and the linen are carried off."--Society is
evidently being overthrown, while with the power, property is changing
hands.

These are their very words. In Franche-Comte[1339] the inhabitants of
eight communes come and declare to the Bernardins of Grace-Dieu and of
Lieu-Croissant "that, being of the Third-Estate, it is time now for the
people to rule over abbots and monks, considering that the domina