Lemoal, on his side, is anxious to receive the money for
his note, while poor Davilliers, "struck with terror by nocturnal
arrests," and seeing that Lemoal is always on the top of the ladder,
concludes to pay; at first, he gives him thirty thousand livres, and
next, the charges, amounting in all to forty-one thousand livres,
when, being at the end of his resources, he begs and entreats to have
his note returned to him. Lemoal, on this, considering the chicken as
entirely stripped, becomes mollified, and tears off in presence of his
debtor "the signature in full of the note," and, along with this, his
own receipts for partial payments underneath. But he carefully
preserves the note itself, for, thus mutilated, it will show, if
necessary, that he had not received anything, and that, through
patriotism, he had undoubtedly wished to force a contribution from a
merchant, but, finding him insolvent, had humanely canceled the
written obligation.[116] - Such are the precautions taken in this
business. Others, less shrewd, rob more openly, among others the
mayor, the seven members of the military commission surnamed "the
seven mortal sins," and especially their president, Lacombe, who, by
promising releases, extracts from eight or nine captives three hundred
and fifty-nine thousand six hundred livres.
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