After five summonses to return to their duties, the magistrates were surprised individually on the night of 19 January 1771 by musketeers, who required them to sign yes or no to a further request to return.
Voltaire praised this revolution, applauding the suppression of the old hereditary magistrature, but by the aristocrats and the noblesse de robe, Maupeou's policy was regarded as the triumph of tyranny.