During the 18th century French Revolution, disgruntled citizens shook pitchforks and oohed with fascination at an invention called the guillotine; they extracted their wrath on wigged and heeled members of the aristocracy, considering them out of touch with their peasant subjects. In 1793, near the base of the Pyrenees peaks in southern France, a band of rebels from the town of Lescar mobbed a château to the north known as Cabidos. They torched everything flammable within stone structures and were about to murder the resident Du Vignau de Trubessé family when the baroness (and mother) lured the attackers to a cellar and provided them with wine. The mob drank themselves to such inebriation that they abandoned their planned executions.[…]