The system in vogue, however, is just the reverse. Both parties
being organized into a body of militia, each takes care of itself,
and is sure to fire on the other; and the more readily, inasmuch as
the new ecclesiastical regulations, which are issued from month to
month, strike like so many hammers on Catholic sensibility, and
scatter showers of sparks on the primings of the already loaded
guns.
At Montauban, on the 10th of May, 1790, the day of the inventory and
expropriation of the religious communities,[4] the commissioners are
not allowed to enter. Women in a state of frenzy lie across the
thresholds of the doors, and it would be necessary to pass over
their bodies; a large mob gathers around the "Cordeliers," and a
petition is signed to have the convents maintained. - The
Protestants who witness this commotion become alarmed, and eighty of
their National Guards march to the H?tel-de-Ville, and take forcible
possession of the guard-house which protects it. The municipal
authorities order them to withdraw, which they refuse to do.
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