Servan stroll about the
country with pencils and drawing-paper, it is averred that they are
preparing topographical plans for the Spaniards and Savoyards. The
four carriages belonging to the two families go to Romans to fetch
some guests: instead of four there are nineteen, and they are sent
for aristocrats who are coming to hide away in underground passages.
M. de Senneville, decorated with a cordon rouge (red ribbon), pays a
visit on his return from Algiers: the decoration becomes a blue one,
and the wearer is the Comte d'Artois[10] in person. There is
certainly a plot brewing, and at five o'clock in the morning
eighteen communes (two thousand armed men) arrive before the doors
of the two houses; shouts and threats of death last for eight hours;
a gun fired a few paces off at the suspects misfires; a peasant who
is aiming at them says to his neighbor, "Give me a decent gun and I
will plant both my balls in their bodies!" Finally, M. de Gilliers,
who was absent, attending a baptism, returns with the Royal
Chasseurs of Dauphiny and the National Guard of Romans, and with
their assistance delivers his family.
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