men and 20,000 horses stationed there. The city invested 190,000 livres for the installation of a new barracks in the Rollin quarter, north of the Roman road. Charles IX passed through the town during his royal tour of France (1564–1566), accompanied by the Court and the nobles of the Kingdom: His brother the Duke of Anjou, Henri de Navarre and the Cardinals of Bourbon and Lorraine. It was in Valence that the saga of Louis Mandrin ended in May 1755, the smuggler who challenged the Ferme Générale and redistributed the proceeds of his theft from it. After spending several days in the city prison, Mandrin was sentenced to death: It was conducted on the where the scaffold was erected, his death ensued on the breaking wheel. His body was exposed after his death, during three days, and many people flocked to pay him a last tribute, as his popularity increased. The death of Mandrin on the wheel of Valence marked the end of his actions, but also the beginning of a legend, as the man had marked the minds of his contemporaries. Napoleon Bonaparte was assigned in the city from 1785 to 1786 in the La Fère artillery regiment. He made many future visits. He would indeed return repeatedly to Valence. It included crossing the city on 12 October 1799, during the return of the expedition to Egypt, and offered to his former landlady who came to welcome him at the posthouse, a cashmere of India (offered to the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament), a compass and a powder spoon (available at the Museum of Valence in 1862). He also met the future Cardinal Spina, who would negotiate on behalf of Pope Pius VII in the Concordat of 1801, on the same day. French Revolution After the convening of the Estates-General, agitation and anxiety grew until the storming of the Bastille, news of which reached the region around 20 July, causing hope but also increasing concerns of a reactionary plot of aristocrats. The Great Fear arose in the region of a rumor, and spread by degrees, at a blistering pace according to local networks, putting all the villages in motion for their defence. Once the peak of fear passed, a latent anxiety remained, the village communities realised that in an emergency, they were in fact isolated and practically reduced to their own devices. National guards were formed quickly, including in