3104 ([return])
[ Rocquam, "l'État de la France au 18 Brumaire." (Report by Barbé-Marbois, p. 72, 81.) Cash-boxes broken open and exclamations by the officers "Money and fortune belong to the brave. Let us help ourselves. Our accounts will be settled at the cannon's mouth."—"The subordinates," adds Barbé-Marbois, "fully aware of their superior's drafts on the public treasury, stipulate for their share of the booty; accustomed to exacting contributions from outside enemies they are not averse to treating as conquered enemies the departments they were called upon to defend.">[
3105 ([return])
[ Ibid. (Reports of Barbe-Marbois and Fourcroy while on their missions in the 12th and 13th military divisions, year IX., p.158, on the tranquility of La Vendée.) "I could have gone anywhere without an escort. During my stay in some of the villages I was not disturbed by any fear or suspicion whatever.... The tranquility they now enjoy and the cessation of persecutions keep them from insurrection.">[
3106 ([return])
[ Archives nationales, F7,3273 (Reports by Gen. Ferino, Pluviôse, year IX, with a table of verdicts by the military commission since Floreal, year VIII.) The commission mentions 53 assassinations, 3 rapes, 44 pillagings of houses, by brigands in Vaucluse, Drôme, and the Lower Alps; 66 brigands taken in the act are shot, 87 after condemnation, and 6, who are wounded, die in the hospital.—Rocquain, ibid., p. 17, (Reports of Français, from Nantes, on his mission in the 8th military division.) "The South may be considered as purged by the destruction of about 200 brigands who have been shot. There remains only three or four bands of 7 or S men each.">[
3107 ([return])
[ Three classes of insurrectionary peasants or marauders.—Tr.]
3108 ([return])
[ Archives Nationales, F7, 7152 (on the prolongation of brigandage). Letter from Lhoste, agent, to the minister of justice, Lyons, Pluviôse 8, year VIII. "The diligences are robbed every week."—Ibid., F7,3267, (Seine-et-Oise, bulletins of the military police and correspondence of the gendarmerie). Brumaire 25, year VIII, attack on the Paris mail near Arpajon by 5 brigands armed with guns. Fructidor, year VIII, at three o'clock P.M., a cart loaded with 10,860 francs sent by the collector at Mantes to the collector at Versailles is stopped near the Marly water-works, by 8 or 10 armed brigands on horseback.—Similar facts abound. It is evident that more than a year is required to put an end to brigandage.—It is always done by employing an impartial military force. (Rocquam, Ibid, p. 10.) "There are at Marseilles three companies of paid national guards, 60 men each, at a franc per man. The fund for this guard is supplied by a contribution of 5 francs a month paid by every man subject to this duty who wishes to be exempt. The officers... are all strangers in the country. Robberies, murders, and conflicts have ceased in Marseilles since the establishment of this guard.">[