The things we do!

At first
an arrest is made of nine of these poachers; but they are released,
"taking circumstances into account." Consequently, for two months,
there is a slaughter on the property of the Prince de Conti and of
the Ambassador Mercy d'Argenteau; in default of bread they eat
rabbits. -- Along with the abuse of property they are led, by a
natural impulse, to attack property itself. Near Saint-Denis the
woods belonging to the abbey are devastated. "The farmers of the
neighborhood carry away loads of wood, drawn by four and five
horses;" the inhabitants of the villages of Ville-Parisis, Tremblay,
Vert-Galant, Villepinte, sell it publicly, and threaten the wood-
rangers with a beating. On the 15th of June the damage is already
estimated at 60,000 livres. -- It makes little difference whether
the proprietor has been benevolent, like M. de Talaru,[3] who had
supported the poor on his estate at Issy the preceding winter. The
peasants destroy the dike which conducts water to his communal mill;
condemned by the parliament to restore it, they declare that not
only will they not obey.


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