The peasants of Saintonge remain firm in their original resoélutions and demands without, however, calling a large assembly so as not, they say, to consume themselves with costs. They number more than 40,000 enrolled men, who are informed of their rendez-vous and will assemble at the first signal or sound of the parish bells.

They protest that they are good Frenchmen who would rather die than continue under the tyranny of the Parisians and the financiers (Parisiens ou partisans), who have reduced them to the despair and extreme poverty under which their province labours presently as a result of new and heavy taxes invented during the course of this reign. These burdens have forced many to abandon their landholdings in order to beg for bread, leaving the land uncultivated, the draught animals unable to live off the saffron crop, leaving also clothes and farm implements to be seized by the bailiffs (sergents). These seizures do not reduce their debts to the receiver, but merely cover the costs of colélection. The peasants have made their complaints known on numerous occasions, but the gentlemen of Paris and the Council have ridiculed their sufferings, levying new taxes every year under the fine pretext of necessity of state. The aim of these gentlemen is to increase the personal wealth of a few individuals and the clients of the ruler of the state by extracting all the money from the province - thus they will achieve the ruin of the kingdom. The peasants have been forced to go to these extremes in order to gain redress of their grievances and that their complaints may be heard by the king and not just by his ministers who counsel him so badly...The people have paid more taxes in two years of this reign than in the whole of the reign of the king his father, and all the reigns of his predecessors since the commencement of this monarchy. Therefore these useless and superféluous expenses should be abolished, as also should the payment of pensions and salaries to the holders of offices created during this reign. All new taxes apart from the taille should be abolished as being for the ruin of the people. Properly spent, the taille, taillon and traditional levies are sufficient for the upkeep of any army necessary for the protection of the realm against enemies. If these taxes should prove insufficient, the peasants are willing to contribute wholeheartedly provided that they are not taxed by the present ministers, who must no longer be allowed the power to impose arbitrarily new taxes and exactions upon the people. Such taxes should be levied only in times of national crisis (ncessits extrêmes) after a vote of the Estates-General as has been the custom since time immemorial...[Express hostility to the purchases of alienated taxes and new salaries (menus droits et nouveaux gages)]. If payment to them is stopped, no great harm will be done to the owners, since they have enjoyed these rights for four or five years, and have thus been entirely reimbursed for the purchase price. This will discourage people in the future from buying these new rights which are in reality taxes on the people. These gentlemen of Paris, financiers and others who have sold such commodities in the provinces for their profit cannot be made to lose enough, since they are the source of all our problems. Their actions have made the name Parisian held in such hatred and horror by the whole province that the mere mention of it is enough to create a riot. Since the revolt began, ten or twelve `Parisians' have been put to death. At St. Savinien one of these Parisian tax-agents was torn to pieces by the mob, each of the peasants taking home his piece and nailing it to the door of his house - the pieces can still be seen.

The peasants have decided not to accept the leadership of any prince or lord discontented with the court. The judge of Montandre and the fiscal-procurator of Cha^teauneuf are the leaders of several parishes and other notables in the towns are being forced to accept the leadership of the movement. Feast days are spent in military practice; slowly but surely the peasants are equipping themselves as best they can. Their chief weapons are swords, which they carry at all times, even whilst working on the land. The peasants will pay the taille and the taillon. There is no question of their paying anything else. Yet if they stop there, must they be taken for rebels?

[Source: Mousnier, ii. 1103-1105. Berc, ii. 736-737].