An instinctive argument is going on in his mind without his knowing it.

"The good Assembly and the good King want us to be happy, suppose we help them! They say that the King has already relieved us of the taxes, suppose we relieve ourselves of paying rents! Down with the nobles! They are no better than the tax-collectors!"-- On the 16th of July, the chateau of Sancy, belonging to the Princesses de Beaufremont, is sacked, and on the 18th those of Lure, Bithaine, and Molans.[1335] On the 29th, an accident which occurs with some fire-works at a popular festival at the house of M.de Mesmay, leads the lower class to believe that the invitation extended to them was a trap, and that there was a desire to get rid of them by treachery.[1336] Seized with rage they set fire to the chateau, and during the following week[1337] destroy three abbeys, ruin eleven chateaux and pillage others.

"All records are destroyed, the registers and court-rolls are carried off; and the deposits violated."-- Starting from this spot, "the hurricane of insurrection" stretches over the whole of Alsace from Huningue to Landau.[1338] The insurgents display placards, signed Louis, stating that for a certain lapse of time they shall be permitted to exercise justice themselves, and, in Sundgau, a well-dressed weaver, decorated with a blue belt, passes for a prince, the King's second son.

They begin by falling on the Jews, their hereditary leeches; they sack their dwellings, divide their money among themselves, and hunt them down like so many fallow-deer.

At Bale alone, it is said that twelve hundred of these unfortunate fugitives arrived with their families .-- The distance between the Jew creditor and the Christian proprietor is not great, and this is soon cleared.