There also the collections are suspended in the name of public authority.

At Agde,[1128] "the people, considering the so-called will of the King as to equality of classes, are foolish enough to think that they are everything and can do everything." Thus do they interpret in their own way and in their own terms the double representation accorded to the Third-Estate.

They threaten the town, consequently, with general pillage if the prices of all provisions are not reduced, and if the duties of the province on wine, fish, and meat are not suppressed.
They also wish to nominate consuls who have sprung up out of their body." The bishop, the lord of the manor, the mayor and the notables, against whom they forcibly stir up the peasantry in the country, are obliged to proclaim by sound of trumpet that their demands shall be granted.

Three days afterwards they exact a diminution of one-half of the tax on grinding, and go in quest of the bishop who owns the mills.
The prelate, who is ill, sinks down in the street and seats himself on a stone; they compel him forthwith to sign an act of renunciation, and hence "his mill, valued at 15,000 livres, is reduced to 7,500 livres."-- At Limoux, under the pretext of searching for grain, they enter the houses of the comptroller and tax contractors, carry off their registers, and throw them into the water along with the furniture of their clerks .-- In Provence it is worse; for most unjustly, and through inconceivable imprudence, the taxes of the towns are all levied on flour.

It is therefore to this impost that the dearness of bread is directly attributed.