At Paris, and in its environs, at Marseilles,
Lyons, Bordeaux, Rennes, and in most of the large towns, sudden
arrests and clandestine abductions go on multiplying.[86] "Nobody, on
retiring to rest, is sure of awaking in freedom the next morning. .
. . From Bayonne to Brussels, there is but one sentiment, that of
unbounded consternation. No one dares either to speak to, encounter,
look at or help one another. Everybody keeps aloof, trembles and
hides away." - So that through this third offensive reaction, the
Jacobin Conquest is completed, and the conquering band, the new
feudalism, becomes a fixed installation. "All who pass here," writes
a Tours habitant, "state that there is no difference in the country
between these times and Robespierre's[87].. . . . It is certain
that the soil is not tenable, and that the people are continually
threatened with exactions as in a conquered country. . . .
Proprietors are crushed down with impositions to such an extent that
they cannot meet their daily expenses, nor pay the cost of
cultivation. In some of my old parishes the imposition takes about
thirteen out of twenty sous of an income. . . The interest on money
amounts to four per cent.
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