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Taine, Hippolyte, 1828-1893

"The French Revolution - Volume 3"

.
. . each to visit eight or ten houses. Each band is headed by one
of the committee, with one municipal officer, accompanied by
locksmiths and a revolutionary guard. The dwellings of the accused
and other private individuals are searched. They force secretaries
and wardrobes of which they do not find the keys. They pillage the
gold and silver coin. They carry off plate, jewels, copper utensils
and other effects, bed-clothes, docks, vehicles, etc. No receipt is
given. No statement is made of what is carried off. They rest
content by at the end of the month, reporting, in a sort of proc?s-
verbal drawn up at a meeting of the committee, that, according to
returns of the visits made, very little plate was found, and only a
little money in gold and silver, all without any calculation or
enumeration." - "Souvenirs et Journal d'un Bourgeois d'Evreux," p.93.
(February 25, 1795.) The meetings of the popular club "were largely
devoted to reading the infamous doings and robberies of the
revolutionary committee. . . . The members who designated
'suspects' often arrested them themselves, and drew up a proc?s-verbal
in which they omitted to state the jewels and gold they found.


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