The improvised lampposts remained standing in Aubagne until the late spring of 1793, when the anti-Jacobins finally tore them down. Many welcomed the event as deliverance. In a sense, therefore, the massive intimidation of enemies was successful, at least for a time. An early history of the town treats the events of August and September 1792 as the beginnings of the Terror in Aubagne, about a year before many historians say it began in the country as a whole. If that was so, the Terror – terror of a different sort than the classic one, to be sure – in Aubagne was not a reflexive series of actions designed to save the country from foreign invasion and domestic counterrevolution. Instead, it was the Jacobins' response to dealing with their local enemies. Such a violent response was bound to lead sooner or later to a counterresponse, but for the moment, the Jacobins were secure.

Jacobin Governance: Aubagne

One of the reasons for the security was that many anti-Jacobins fled the town. How many fled is unknown, but there is one list that suggests that at a number of the leading anti-Jacobins took refuge in the safer neighborhoods of Marseille. The notary Georges Cartier, for example, one of the prominent leaders in trying to get the Jacobin electoral victories of 1792 overturned, was denied a certificat de civisme, a written affidavit of civic virtue, because he was “unworthy.” Apparently, he had held assemblies of “suspect citizens” in his home.