Private enmities were wiped out in blood.
None were too high or too low to be denounced as Royalists, and denunciation was followed as a matter of course by a mock trial and execution.

Every man distrusted his neighbour, and fear caused those who most loathed and hated the existing regime to be loudest in their advocacy of it.

There were spies everywhere--men who received blood-money for every victim they denounced.
Thus, then, Harry's efforts to make acquaintances among the sailors met with very slight success.

He was a stranger, and that was sufficient to cause distrust, and ere long it became whispered that he had come from Paris with special authority to hasten on the work of extirpation of the enemies of the state.

Soon, therefore, Harry perceived that as he moved along the quay little groups of sailors and fishermen talking together broke up at his approach, the men sauntering off to the wine-shops, and any he accosted replied civilly indeed, but with embarrassment and restraint; and although any questions of a general character were answered, a profound ignorance was manifested upon the subject upon which he wished to gain information.