minds of the
women, who filled the church, whilst their husbands were haunting
the taverns. Profiting by the growing fear, which the approach of the
Cholera then inspired, the preacher struck with terror these weak and
credulous imaginations by pointing to M. Hardy's factory as a centre
of corruption and damnation, capable of drawing down the vengeance of
Heaven, and bringing the fatal scourge upon the country. Thus the men,
already inflamed with envy, were still more excited by the incessant
urgency of their wives, who, maddened by the abbe's sermons, poured
their curses on that band of atheists, who might bring down so many
misfortunes upon them and their children. Some bad characters, belonging
to the factory of Baron Tripeaud, and paid by him (for it was a great
interest the honorable manufacturer had in the ruin of M. Hardy), came
to augment the general irritation, and to complete it by raising one
of those alarming union-questions, which in our day have unfortunately
caused so much bloodshed. Many of M. Hardy's workmen, before they
entered his employ, had belonged to a society or union, called the
Devourers; while many of the stonecutters in the neighboring quarries
belonged to a society called the Wolves. Now, for a long time, an
implacable rivalry had existed between the Wolves and Devourers, and
brought about many sanguinary struggles, which are the more to be
deplored, as, in some respects, the idea of these unions is excellent,
being founded on the fruitful and mighty principle of association.
But unfortunately, instead of embracing all trades in one fraternal
communion, these unions break up the working-class into distinct and
hostile societies, whose rivalry often leads to bloody collisions.(27)
For the last week, the Wolves, excited by so many different
importunities, burned to discover an occasion or a pretext to come
to blows with the Devourers; but the latter, not frequenting the
public-houses, and hardly leaving the factory during the week, had
hitherto rendered such a meeting impossible, and the Wolves had been
forced to wait for the Sunday with ferocious impatience.

Moreover, a great number of the quarrymen and stonecutters, being
peaceable and hard-working people, had refused, though Wolves themselves
to join this hostile manifestation against the Devourers of M. Hardy's
factory; the leaders had been obliged to recruit their forces from the
vagabonds and idlers of the barriers, whom the attraction