[104] In the neighboring provinces of Dijon, Beaune,
Semur and Aignayle-Duc, the heads of the municipality and of the club
always meet in taverns and bars. At Dijon, we see "the ten or twelve
Hercules of patriotism traversing the town, each with a chalice under
his arm:"[105] this is their drinking-cup; each has to bring his own
to the Montagnard inn; there, they imbibe copiously, frequently, and
between two glasses of wine "declare who are outlaws." At Aignay-le-
Duc, a small town with only half a dozen patriots "the majority of
whom can scarcely write, most of them poor, burdened with families,
and living without doing anything, never quit the bars, where, night
and day, they revel;" their chief, a financial ex-procureur, now
"concierge, archivist, secretary and president of the popular club,"
holds municipal council in the tavern. "Should they go out it was to
chase female aristocrats," and one of them declares "that if the half
of Aignay were slaughtered the other half would be all the better for
it." - There is nothing like drinking to excite ferocity to the
highest pitch. At Strasbourg the sixty mustachioed propagandist
lodged in the college in which they are settled fixtures, have a cook
provided for them by the town, and they revel day and night "on the
choice provisions put in requisition," "on wines destined to the
defenders of the country.
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