July,[18] a written placard shows, by its orthography and its style,
what sort of intellects composed it and what kind of actions are to
follow it:

"Nation, you have here four heads to strike off, those of Pontcarry
(the first president), Maussion (the intendant), Godard de Belbœuf
(the attorney-general), and Durand (the attorney of the King in the
town). Without this we are lost, and if you do not do it, people
will take you for a heartless nation."

Nothing could be more explicit. The municipal body, however, to
whom the Parliament denounces this list of proscriptions, replies,
with its forced optimism, that

"no citizen should consider himself or be considered as proscribed;
he may and must believe himself to be safe in his own dwelling,
satisfied that there is not a person in the city who would not fly
to his rescue."

This is equal to telling the populace that it is free to do as it
pleases. On the strength of this the leaders of the riot work on in
security for ten days. One of them is a man named Jourdain, a
lawyer of Lisieux, and, like most of his brethren, a demagogue in
principles; the other is a strolling actor from Paris named Bordier,
famous in the part of harlequin,[19] a bully in a house of ill-fame,
"a night-rover and drunkard, and who, fearing neither God nor
devil," has taken up patriotism, and comes down into the provinces
to play tragedy, and that, tragedy in real life. The fifth act
begins on the night of the 3rd of August, with Bordier and Jourdain
as the principal actors, and behind them the rabble along with