At first an arrest is made of nine of these poachers; but they are released, "taking circumstances into account." Consequently, for two months, there is a slaughter on the property of the Prince de Conti and of the Ambassador Mercy d'Argenteau; in default of bread they eat rabbits .-- Along with the abuse of property they are led, by a natural impulse, to attack property itself.

Near Saint-Denis the woods belonging to the abbey are devastated.

"The farmers of the neighborhood carry away loads of wood, drawn by four and five horses;" the inhabitants of the villages of Ville-Parisis, Tremblay, Vert-Galant, Villepinte, sell it publicly, and threaten the wood-rangers with a beating.

On the 15th of June the damage is already estimated at 60,000 livres .-- It makes little difference whether the proprietor has been benevolent, like M.de Talaru,[1203] who had supported the poor on his estate at Issy the preceding winter.

The peasants destroy the dike which conducts water to his communal mill; condemned by the parliament to restore it, they declare that not only will they not obey.