de Bussy does not pretend to do it. He merely tries to prove that he is loyal to the nation, and that he meditates no wrong to the National Guard or to the people. He proposed, at the out-set, to the volunteers of Ma?on to join them, along with his little troop;they refused to have him and thus the fault is not on his side. On the 14th of July, 1790, the day of the Federation on his domain, he sends all his people off to Villiers, furnished with the tricolour cockade. He himself, with three of his friends, attends the ceremony to take the oath, all four in uniform, with the cockade on their hats, without any weapons but their swords and a light cane in their hands. They salute the assembled National Guards of the three neighboring parishes, and keep outside the enclosure so as not to give offense. But they have not taken into account the prejudices and animosities of the new municipal bodies. Perron, the former syndic, is now mayor. A man named Bailly, who is the village shoemaker, is another of the municipal officers; their councilor is an old dragoon, one of those soldiers probably who have deserted or been discharged, and who are the firebrands of almost every riot that takes place. A squad of a dozen or fifteen men leave the ranks and march up to the four gentlemen, who advance, hat in hand, to meet them. Suddenly the men aim at them, and Bailly, with a furious air, demands: "What the devil do you come here for?" M. de Bussy replies that, having been informed of the Federation, he had come to take the oath like the rest of the people. Bailly asks why he had come armed. M. de Bussy remarks that "having been in the service, the sword was inseparable from the uniform," and had they come there without that badge they would have been at fault; besides, they must have observed that they had no other arms. Bailly, still in a rage, and, moreover, exasperated by such good reasons, turns round with his gun in his hand towards the leader of the squad and asks him three times in succession, "Commander, must I fire?" The commander not daring to take the responsibility of so gratuitous a murder, remains silent, and finally orders M. de Bussy to "clear out;""which I did," says M. de Bussy. - Nevertheless, on reaching home, he writes to the municipal authorities clearly setting forth the motive of his coming, and demands an explanation of the treatment he had received. Mayor Perron throws aside his letter without reading it, and, on the following day, on leaving the mass, the National Guards come, by way of menace, to load their guns in sight of M. de Bussy, round his garden. - A few days after this, at the instigation of Bailly, two other proprietors in the neighborhood are assassinated in their houses. Finally, on a journey to Lyons, M. de Bussy learns "that the chateaux in Poitou are again in flames, and that the work is to begin again everywhere." - Alarmed at all these indications, "he resolves to form a company of volunteers, which, taking up their quarters in his chateau, can serve the whole canton on a legal requisition." He thinks that about fifteen brave men will be sufficient. He has already six men with him in the month of October, 1790; green coats are ordered for them, and buttons are bought for the uniform. Seven or eight domestics may be added to the number. In the way of arms and munitions the chateau contains two kegs of gunpowder which were on hand before 1789, seven blunderbusses, and five cavalry sabers, left there in passing by M.
de Bussy's old dragoons: to these must be added two double-barreled fowling-pieces, three soldiers' muskets, five brace of pistols, two poor common guns, two old swords, and a hunting-knife. Such is the garrison, such the arsenal, and these are the preparations, so well justified and so slight, which prejudice conjointly with gossip is about to transform into a great conspiracy.
The chateau, in effect, was an object of suspicion in the village from the very first day. All its visitors, whenever they went out or came in, with all the details of their actions, were watched, denounced, exaggerated, and misinterpreted. If through the awkwardness or carelessness of so many inexperienced National Guards, a stray ball reaches a farm-house one day in broad daylight, it comes from the chateau; it is the aristocrats who have fired upon the peasants. - There is the same state of suspicion in the neighboring towns. The municipal body of Valence, hearing that two youths had ordered coats made "of a color which seemed suspicious,"send for the tailor; he confesses the fact, and adds that "they intended to put the buttons on themselves." Such a detail is alarming. An inquiry is set on foot and the alarm increases; people in a strange uniform have been seen passing on their way to the chateau of Villiers; from thence, on reaching the number of two hundred, they will go and join the garrison of Besan?on; they will travel four at a time in order to avoid detection. At Besan?on they are to meet a corps of forty thousand men, commanded by M.
