There is a third windfall, not less large, but carried on in more open
sunshine and therefore still more enticing. - Once the "suspect is
incarcerated, whatever he brings to prison along with him, whatever he
leaves behind him at home, becomes plunder; for, with the
incompleteness, haste and irregularity of papers,[120] with the lack
of surveillance and known connivance, the vultures, great and small,
could freely use their beaks and talons. - At Toulouse, as in Paris
and elsewhere, commissioners take from prisoners every object of value
and, accordingly, in many cases, all gold, silver, assignats, and
jewelry, which, confiscated for the Treasury, stop half-way in the
hands of those who make the seizure.[121] At Poitiers, the seven
scoundrels who form the ruling oligarchy, admit, after Thermidor, that
they stole the effects of arrested parties.[122] At Orange, "Citoyenne
Riot," wife of the public prosecutor, and "citoyennes Fernex and
Ragot," wives of two judges, come in person to the record-office to
make selections from the spoils of the accused, taking for their
wardrobe silver shoe-buckles, laces and fine linen.[123] - But all
that the accused, the imprisoned and fugitives can take with them,
amounts to but little in comparison with what they leave at home, that
is to say, under sequestration.
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