It is because the parishes in his domain are "clubbist,"
governed by associations of moral and practical levelers; in one of
them "the brigands have organized themselves into a municipal body,"
and have chosen their leader as procureur-syndic. Consequently, on
the 22nd of August, eighty armed peasants opened the dam of his
large pond, at the risk of submerging a village in the neighborhood,
the inhabitants of which came and closed it up. Five other ponds
belonging to him are demolished in the course of the two following
weeks; fish to the value of from four to five thousand francs are
stolen, and the rest perish in the weeds. In order to make this
expropriation sure, an effort is made to burn his title-deeds; his
chateau, twice attacked in the night, is saved only by the National
Guard of Ussel. His farmers and domestics hesitate, for the time
being, whether or not to cultivate the ground, and come and ask the
steward if they could sow the seeds. There is no recourse to the
proper authorities: the administrators and judges, even when their
own property is concerned, "dare not openly show themselves,"
because "they do not find themselves protected by the shield of the
law.
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