Abominable stories were circulating; it was said that written placards had been set up threatening to rip open the bellies of the bourgeois. Nobody had read them, but all the same they were able to quote the exact words.
Il circulait des histoires abominables, on parlait d'affiches manuscrites, menaçant les bourgeois de leur crever le ventre; personne ne les avait lues, on n'en citait pas moins des phrases textuelles.