"À la lanterne!" is a French slogan that gained special meaning and status in Paris and France during the early phase of the French Revolution from the summer of 1789. Lamp posts served as an instrument to mobs to perform extemporised lynchings and executions in the streets of Paris during the revolution when the people of Paris occasionally hanged officials and aristocrats from the lamp posts. Some English equivalents would be "String them up!" or "Hang 'em high!"