The property of all the convents had been confiscated, and this measure had been followed by the seizure of the vast estates of the church.
All the privileges of the nobility had been declared at an end, and in August a decree had been passed abolishing all titles of nobility.

This decree had taken effect in Paris and in the great towns, and also in some parts of the country where the passions of the people were most aroused against the nobility; but in Burgundy it had remained a dead letter.

The Marquis de St.Caux was popular upon his estates, and no one had ever neglected to concede to him and to the marquise their titles.

He himself had regarded the decree with disdain.

"They may take away my estates by force," he said, "but no law can deprive me of my title, any more than of the name which I inherited from my fathers.