Within twenty-four hours of Jean-Marie's execution the whole town was in the throes of the Revolution.

What the death of King Louis, the arrest of Marie Antoinette, the massacres of September had failed to do, that the arrest and execution of an elderly fisherman accomplished in a trice.
People began to take sides in politics.

Some families realized that they came from ancient lineage, and that their ancestors had helped to build up the throne of the Bourbons.

Others looked up ancient archives and remembered past oppressions at the hands of the aristocrats.
Thus some burghers of Boulogne became ardent reactionaries, whilst others secretly nursed enthusiastic royalist convictions: some were ready to throw in their lot with the anarchists, to deny the religion of their fathers, to scorn the priests and close the places of worship; others adhered strictly still to the usages and practices of the Church.
Arrest became frequent: the guillotine, erected in the Place de la Senechaussee, had plenty of work to do.

Soon the cathedral was closed, the priests thrown into prison, whilst scores of families hoped to escape a similar fate by summary flight.
Vague rumours of a band of English adventurers soon reached the little sea-port town.