The commander of the squad who guards prisoners on
the way to Paris, and who "starves them along the road to speculate on
them," is an ex-cook of Agen, having become a gendarme; he makes them
travel forty leagues extra, "purposely to glorify himself," and "let
all Agen see that he has government money to spend, and that he can
put citizens in irons." Accordingly, in Agen, "he keeps constantly and
needlessly inspecting the vehicle," winking at the spectators, "more
triumphant than if he had made a dozen Austrians prisoners and brought
them along himself." At last, to show the crowd in the street the
importance of his capture, he summons two blacksmiths to come out and
rivet, on the legs of each prisoner, a cross-bar cannon-ball weighing
eighty pounds.[152] The more display these henchmen make of their
brutality, the greater they think themselves. At Belfort, a patriot
of the club dies, and a civic interment takes place; a detachment of
the revolutionary army joins the procession; the men are armed with
axes; on reaching the cemetery, the better to celebrate the funeral,
"they cut down all the crosses (over the graves) and make a bonfire of
them, while the carmagnole ends this ever memorable day.
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