If any of the gentry had reason to
believe himself popular and safe it was certainly this man. - On
the 24th of June, 1791, the municipal authorities of Moran?e,
Lucenay, and Chazelai, with their mayors and National Guards, in all
nearly two thousand men, arrive at the chateau with drums beating
and flags flying. M. de Chaponay goes out to meet them, and begs to
know to what he owes "the pleasure" of their visit. They reply that
they do not come to offend him, but to carry out the orders of the
district, which oblige them to take possession of the chateau and to
place in it a guard of sixty men: on the following day the
"district" and the National Guard of Villefranche are to come and
inspect it. - Be it noted that these orders are imaginary, for M.
de Chaponay asks in vain to see them; they cannot be produced. The
cause of their setting out, probably, is the false rumor that the
National Guard of Villefranche is coming to deprive them of a booty
on which they had calculated.
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