Consequently the Jacobins denounce it to the National Assembly as an unpatriotic and anti-revolutionary center of "bourgeois aristocracy." Sometimes, as at Brest,[2459] they shamefully disobey orders which are perfectly legal and proper, often repeated and strictly formal; afterward, still more shamefully, they demand of the Minister if, "placed in the cruel alternative of giving offense to the hierarchy of powers, or of leaving the commonwealth in danger, they ought to hesitate." Sometimes, as at Arras, they impose themselves illegally on the Directory in session and browbeat it so insolently as to make it a point of honor with the latter to solicit its own suspension.[2460] Sometimes, as a Figeac, they summon an administrator to their bar, keep him standing three-quarters of an hour, seize his papers and oblige him, for fear of something worse, to leave the town.[2461] Sometimes, as at Auch, they invade the Directory's chambers, seize the administrators by the throat, pound them with their fists and clubs, drag the president by the hair, and, after a good deal of trouble, grant him his life.[2462]--On the other hand, the gendarmerie and the troops brought for the suppression of riots, are always in the way of those who stir up the rioters.

Consequently, they expel, corrupt and, especially purify the gendarmerie together with the troops.

At Cahors they drive out a sergeant of the gendarmerie, "alleging that he keeps company with none but aristocrats."[2463] At Toulouse, without mentioning the lieutenant-colonel, whose life they threaten by anonymous letters and oblige to leave the town, they transfer the whole corps to another district under the pretense that "its principles are adverse to the Constitution."[2464] At Auch, and at Rennes, through the insubordination which they provoke among the men, they exhort resignations from their officers.

At Perpignan, by means of a riot which they foment, they seize, beat and drag to prison, the commandant and staff whom they accuse "of wanting to bombard the town with five pounds of powder."[2465]--Meanwhile, through the jacquerie, which they let loose from the Dordogne to Aveyron, from Cantal to the Pyrenees and the Var, under the pretence of punishing the relatives of emigres and the abettors of unsworn priests, they create an army of their own made up of robbers and the destitute who, in anticipation of the exploits of the coming revolutionary army, freely kill, burn, pillage, hold to ransom and prey at large on the defenseless flock of proprietors of every class and degree.[2466] In this operation each club has its neighbors for allies, offering to them or receiving from them offers of men and money.

That of Caen tenders its assistance to the Bayeux association for expelling unsworn priests, and to help the patriots of the place "to rid themselves of the tyranny of their administrators."[2467] That of Besancon declares the three administrative bodies of Strasbourg "unworthy of the confidence with which they have been honored," and openly enters into a league with all the clubs of the Upper and Lower Rhine, to set free a Jacobin arrested as a fomenter of insurrections.[2468] Those of the Puy-de-Dome and neighboring departments depute to and establish at Clermont a central club of direction and propaganda.[2469] Those of the Bouches-du-Rhone treat with the commissioners of the departments of Drome, Gard, and Herault, to watch the Spanish frontier, and send delegates of their own to see the state of the fortifications of Figuieres.[2470]--There is no recourse to the criminal tribunals.