the bishop who owns the mills. The prelate, who is ill, sinks down
in the street and seats himself on a stone; they compel him
forthwith to sign an act of renunciation, and hence "his mill,
valued at 15,000 livres, is reduced to 7,500 livres." -- At Limoux,
under the pretext of searching for grain, they enter the houses of
the comptroller and tax contractors, carry off their registers, and
throw them into the water along with the furniture of their clerks.
-- In Provence it is worse; for most unjustly, and through
inconceivable imprudence, the taxes of the towns are all levied on
flour. It is therefore to this impost that the dearness of bread is
directly attributed. Hence the fiscal agent becomes a manifest
enemy, and revolts on account of hunger are transformed into
insurrections against the State.

VI.

The first jacquerie in Province. - Feebleness or ineffectiveness of
repressive measures.

Here, again, political novelties are the spark that ignites the mass
of gunpowder. Everywhere, the uprising of the people takes place on
the very day on which the electoral assembly meets. From forty to
fifty riots occur in the provinces in less than a fortnight.
Popular imagination, like that of a child, goes straight to its
mark. The reforms having been announced, people think them
accomplished and, to make sure of them, steps are at once taken to
carry them out. Now that we are to have relief, let us relieve
ourselves. "This is not an isolated riot as usual," writes the
commander of the troops;[29] "here the faction is united and
governed by uniform principles; the same errors are diffused through