I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 382: Freedom League Committee
Saint Just looked at the light piece of paper in the policeman's hand and could vaguely see his own handwriting on it.

His face turned pale and his heart began to pound uncontrollably in his chest.

How did the letter fall into the hands of the French police? Did Qiao Sen betray the club? Impossible, he was Mr. Rousseau's student...

The letter was delivered to Brussels by Johnson himself. If it wasn't him, then there could only be a traitor in the Southern Netherlands "Committee"!
Saint Just glared at Yescute who was standing not far away, then pointed at the captain of the mounted police and shouted to the surrounding farmers: "They are lying, don't be fooled by them!"

While hundreds of people present were stunned, he suddenly jumped off the stone platform and ran desperately towards the path leading out of the village.

The contact person of the Southern Netherlands "Committee" hesitated for two seconds, but suddenly pounced on the policeman and tried to snatch the letter from his hand.

The mounted police were not as clumsy as usual - the police reform did not involve the rural mounted police, some of whom belonged to the tax system, so most of them seemed to be poorly trained - they nimbly dodged Yeskut's attack and kicked him in the calf.

Yeskut lost his balance instantly and fell to the ground. Two mounted policemen rushed over and held him down.

The peasants looked at the scene in front of them in amazement, and then turned to look at Saint Just, who had already run away with only his back left. Without the cavalry saying anything else, they already understood about 80% of what was going on, and immediately began to talk among themselves.

The captain of the cavalry handed the letter to the farmers anyway, and after they had passed it around, he took it back and put it in his pocket.

In fact, the letter was a forgery, and the real letter was still locked in the drawer of an official of the Southern Netherlands "Committee".

Some of the letters had been seen by some of the members of the "Committee" captured by the Intelligence Service, so Fouché had them roughly copied. Then they obtained letters from members of the French Liberal Party from the postal system and used them to imitate the handwriting.

In fact, more than half of the dozen mounted policemen were agents of the Intelligence Bureau in disguise. They held the letter full of loopholes and simply waved it in front of Saint Just, who then ran away guiltily.

Of course, if he didn't run away, the "mounted police" would not really hand him the letter for "confrontation", but would arrest him on the spot. Who among those farmers could tell whether the letter was real or not?

Even if Saint Just had handled the situation properly, exposed the agent and escaped successfully, it would not have mattered, because the same scene was being played out in more than a dozen places, including Lille and Reims.

Among the high-ranking liberals who were causing trouble, there would always be some who were not strong enough in mentality and would run away. As long as someone ran away because he felt guilty, it would be equivalent to admitting the accusation, and the farmers present would become witnesses.

In fact, almost all the liberals who instigated the riots felt guilty. The only difference was whether they ran away immediately or continued to resist and try to incite the farmers to fight the police.

The captain of the cavalry ordered his men to lift Yeskut up, and then motioned to a man with his hands tied behind him to come forward: "Do you know him?"

The man nodded immediately. "His name is Yeskut. He is one of the seven representatives of the 'Committee'."

The captain of the mounted police waved his hand toward the farmers again: "Tell them who you are?"

"My name is Henri Bellwin. The committee sent me to spread rumors and incite conflicts between French peasants and nobles in order to reduce the military pressure on Brussels..."

The captain of the mounted police signaled his men to take him away with satisfaction, and then said to the farmers present: "As you can see, you have all been deceived by the Southern Netherlands people, and of course, those so-called liberals. They are just using you to cause trouble, and they don't care whether you will be arrested or even killed."

The farmers immediately became agitated, and the timid ones quietly slipped back home.

Two other farmers whispered nervously, then moved tremblingly in front of the mounted police, each took out a few silver coins from their pockets, pointed at Yeskut and stammered: "Master, he, he said this is a 'free allowance', so we..."

"We really didn't know he was here to incite riots. We've handed over all the money and we'll never dare to do it again..." While members of the Southern Netherlands "Committee" in Reims, Lille and other places were being arrested in large numbers by the Intelligence Agency, in the cells of the Reims Police Station, more than thirty young nobles were cursing in low voices.

"These stupid police officers actually slandered us as rioters!"

"They dared not keep us for long. There must have been many people at Versailles speaking up and praising our bravery."

"When I leave here, I will teach those untouchables a lesson! They actually want to use threats against the government to defraud the land. We must not let them succeed!"

Although it is called a prison, the conditions here are actually quite good. Every five people live in a suite, which has a living room and bathroom, and there are even musical instruments hanging on the wall.

There was a dense sound of leather boots in the corridor between the cells. A moment later, a team of prison guards came in, escorting three handcuffed, depressed men.

The door of the cell at the edge was opened, and the prison guard roughly threw the three people in, saying coldly: "Good luck to you, bastards!"

The iron door slammed shut and the prison guards turned and left.

In the cell opposite, a nobleman shouted to the three men through the small window on the door: "Hey, gentlemen, what 'great achievements' have brought you here?"

The three of them glanced at him depressedly but remained silent.

The laughter of the prison guards could be heard outside the cell. One of them knocked on the cell door with his baton and said to the three men, "Netherlands, why don't you answer him?"

"Oh, you are from the Netherlands?" A noble immediately joined in the fun, "It must be quite extraordinary to be imprisoned here, right?"

The newly imprisoned people caught a glimpse of the prison guard's threatening eyes through the small window and could only turn to the noble and whisper, "We are... sent by the 'Committee'."

"Committee?" The other nobles were more interested. "Is it the River Transport Committee or the Geological Committee?"

"Yes, it's the 'Freedom Alliance Committee'..."

"Huh? What's that for? I've never heard of it."

The Dutchman spoke with difficulty: "We have contacted the French liberals and tried to incite riots in France... This time, the peasants of Reims besieged the city hall under our call, no, under our incitement..."

The faces of the nobles in the surrounding cells suddenly turned livid. "Assholes, it turned out that you were the ones instigating this behind the scenes!"

"No wonder those untouchables have flintlock rifles. It turns out they were provided by the Southern Netherlands!"

"Fuck! Let me out! I want to fight these guys!"

However, the prison guards did not give these nobles a chance to duel. Instead, they were released two days later.

(End of this chapter)