One of the men was the audacious Stanislas-Marie Maillard, a prominent "vainqueur" of the Bastille, who eagerly snatched up his own drum and led the infectious cry of ""à Versailles!"" Maillard was a popular figure among the market-women, and by unofficial acclamation was given a leadership role. Although hardly a man of gentle disposition, Maillard helped suppress by force of character the mob's worst instincts; he rescued the Hôtel de Ville's quartermaster, Pierre-Louis Lefebvre-Laroche, a priest commonly known as "Abbé Lefebvre", who had been strung up on a lamppost for trying to safeguard its gunpowder storage. The City Hall itself was ransacked as the crowd surged through taking its provisions and weapons, but Maillard helped prevent it from burning down the entire building. In due course, the rioters' attention turned again to Versailles, and they filtered back to the streets. Maillard deputized a number of women as group leaders and gave a loose sense of order to the proceedings as he led the crowd out of the city in the driving rain.