It does not seem fair to attribute the excesses of mobs during the French Revolution to the Enlightenment. The Philosophes were more associated with the monarchy, the "Enlightened Despots" who patronized them; some of them, like DuPont, fled the country. The Remonstrance of the leaders of the 2nd Estate against Turgot, leading to his dismissal, helped dissociate Philosophers from both parties; but the Philosophers certainly did not lead the mobs, who took direct and violent action, which they could understand, against the proximate and most visible agents of their exploitation, who had rid themselves of the Philosophers who were trying to make the system work without overturning it. Mason Gaffney