Banditry increased in intensity at the end of the Directory. To reduce insecurity and to maintain a public order increasingly out of control, the neo-Jacobin majority that emerged from the coup d’état of Prairial, Year VII imposed one of the most severe pieces of legislation intended to combat banditry : the law of hostages of 24 Messidor, Year VII. The looting of public vehicles, the assassination of civil servants, the attacks against owners of national property, or members of law enforcement and the civic order were signs, for the authorities, of the political nature of these crimes. Assimilating the relatives of emigres or ex-nobles to partisans of royalism, and therefore to bandits, the law of hostages regarded certain citizens as guilty by definition. How was this law applied in the departments? Is it possible to evaluate the results of this law ? Who were the citizens mentioned in the hostage lists? How did public opinion react to this legislation, which was presented by the Directorial authorities as a law of republican defense ? This article will answer these questions, while examining the political and social context in which this law of exception was implemented.