On July 20, 1816, Pierre Maze, a middle-aged farmer and part-time tile maker, sat in the interrogation room at the prévôtal court in Périgueux. The discomfort he felt was not because of the summer heat, nor the arduousness of the journey that had brought him there: his home in the place known as Planèze, part of the village of Neuvic, was only a few hours’ ride along the Isle river valley from the administrative capital of the department of the Dordogne. Rather, his anxiety stemmed from the fact that he was about to be questioned on two dangerous charges: inciting others to overthrow the government and assault on the king. His actions had not threatened the king's life, however, but merely the stability of his government: unlike assassins of earlier eras, armed with knives, Maze's crime was one of words.

When the men of the court entered the room, Maze composed himself. Fifteen witnesses who lived in and around Neuvic had testified to the words he had spoken at the time of Carnival, earlier that spring. Maze had moved about the fairs and marketplaces, they stated, entering into the taverns to encourage his fellow citizens not to pay their taxes. “Don't pay taxes to this potato-eating king, to this king with his plaster face,” he was reported to have said. “Bonaparte is set to land with 600,000 men; Louis XVIII will flee and take our money with him, like he did the first time.”