In Tarn-et-Garonne, southeastern France, there was a city called Saint-Antonin. This small city lay on the edge of the Causse Mountains, where a limestone basin had been carved by two rivers into steep, perilous gorges.
The city had once prospered. In the thirteenth century, it was one of the important cities of the Champigny fairs. The calves raised in Saint-Antonin and its surrounding suburbs remained highly sought-after goods at those fairs. It also produced paper and had woolen mills, dye works, and tanneries—all traces left behind by its once-glorious past.
However, after the Edict of Nantes was revoked, this Protestant stronghold was dealt a devastating blow. The people of the city began living in a state of self-sufficiency, replacing money with barter and leading lives untouched by worldly strife.
Millers took a share of the wheat their customers brought in. A blacksmith would forge an axe in exchange for a client working in his vineyard for a day. Poultry, vegetables, and fruit were all locally produced, while walnuts could be pressed for oil. In other words, this was a city easy to defend and hard to attack, known throughout Tarn-et-Garonne as the city that "Never Surrenders."
There were very few roads through the countryside surrounding Saint-Antonin. Travelers often encountered hardship and misfortune along the way, so for centuries, the monasteries had rung their bells every day to draw the attention of those who had lost their way.
Yet the city produced abundant flax and dye crops, especially woad. Because of the sanctions, its price had soared until it was nearly worth its weight in silver. That proved no small temptation to certain bandits, so a group of them disguised themselves as grain merchants and entered the city.
There were seven bakeries in the city, but only around eight hundred customers