-- There is no limit to an insurrection
against property. This one extends from abbeys and chateaux to the
"houses of the bourgeoisie."[43] The grudge at first was confined
to the holders of charters; now it is extended to all who possess
anything. Well-to-do farmers and priests abandon their parishes and
fly to the towns. Travelers are put to ransom. Thieves, robbers,
and returned convicts, at the head of armed bands, seize whatever
they can lay their hands on. Cupidity becomes inflamed by such
examples; on domains which are deserted and in a state of confusion,
where there is nothing to indicate a master's presence, all seems to
lapse to the first comer. A small farmer of the neighborhood has
carried away wine and returns the following day in search of hay.
All the furniture of a chateau in Dauphin is removed, even to the
hinges of the doors, by a large reinforcement of carts. -- " It is
the war of the poor against the rich," says a deputy, "and, on the
3rd of August, the Committee on Reports declares to the National
Assembly "that no kind of property has been spared.
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