All this was quickly on the way to Grenoble." In the vicinity of Paris, the forerunners of the throng, provided "with pitchforks and bayonets, rush to the farms, take oxen out of their stalls, grab sheep and chickens, burn the barns, and sell their booty to speculators."[33158] "Bacon, eggs, butter and chickens--the peasants surrender whatever is demanded of them, and thenceforth have nothing that they can take to market.

They curse the Republic which has brought war and famine on them, and nevertheless they do what they are told: on being addressed, 'Citizen peasant, I require of you on peril of your head,'...

it is not possible to refuse."[33159]--Accordingly, they are only too glad to be let off so cheaply.

On Brumaire 19, about seven o'clock in the evening, at Tigery, near Corbeil, twenty-five men "with sabers and pistols in their belts, most of them in the uniform of the National Guards and calling themselves the revolutionary army," enter the house of Gibbon, an old ploughman, seventy-one years of age, while fifty others guard all egress from it, so that the expedition may not be interfered with.

Turlot, captain, and aid-de-camp to General Henriot, wants to know where the master of the house is.--"In his bed," is the reply.--"Wake him up."-- The old man rises .-- Give up your arms."-- His wife hands over a fowling-piece, the only arm on the premises.