[The Origins of Contemporary France Volume 2 (of 6) by Hippolyte A. Taine]@TWC D-Link bookThe Origins of Contemporary France Volume 2 (of 6) CHAPTER I 27/51
To the south of Chartres "three or four hundred woodcutters, from the forests of Belleme, chop away everything that opposes them, and force grain to be given up to them at their own price." In the vicinity of Etampes, fifteen bandits enter the farmhouses at night and put the farmer to ransom, threatening him with a conflagration.
In Cambresis they pillage the abbeys of Vauchelles, of Verger, and of Guillemans, the chateau of the Marquis de Besselard, the estate of M.Doisy, two farms, the wagons of wheat passing along the road to Saint-Quentin, and, besides this, seven farms in Picardy. "The seat of this revolt is in some villages bordering on Picardy and Cambresis, familiar with smuggling operations and to the license of that pursuit." The peasants allow themselves to be enticed away by the bandits.
Man slips rapidly down the incline of dishonesty; one who is half-honest, and takes part in a riot inadvertently or in spite of himself; repeats the act, allured on by impunity or by gain.
In fact, "it is not dire necessity which impels them;" they make a speculation of cupidity, a new sort of illicit trade.
An old soldier, saber in hand, a forest-keeper, and "about eight persons sufficiently lax, put themselves at the head of four or five hundred men, go off each day to three or four villages.
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