_* { * 
a HIS ADMINISTRATION AS MAYOR. 201 
constantly before our eyes the list of unheard-of difficul- 
ties that the revolution had to surmount, and to remember 
the very restricted means of repression placed at the 
disposal of the authorities in the beginning. 
The scarcity of food gave rise to many embarrass- 
ments, to many a crisis; but causes of quite another 
nature had not less influence on the march of events. 
In his memoirs, Bailly speaks of the manceuvres of a 
redoubtable faction labouring for...... under the 
name of the ..... The names are blank. A certain 
editor of the work filled up the lacune. I have not the 
same hardihood. I only wished to remark that Bailly 
had to combat at once both the spontaneous efferves- 
cence of the multitude, and the intrigues of a crowd of 
secret agents, who distributed money with a liberal hand. 
Some day, said our colleague, the infernal genius who 
directed those intrigues and le bailleur de fonds will be 
known. Although the proper names are wanting, it is 
certain that some persons inimical to the revolution urged 
it to deplorable excesses. 
These enemies had collected in the capital thirty or 
forty thousand vagabonds. What could be opposed to 
them? The Tribunals? They had no moral power, and 
were declared enemies to the revolution. ‘The National 
-Guard? It was only just formed; the officers scarcely 
knew each other, and moreover scarcely knew the men 
who were to obey them. Was it at least permitted to 
depend on the regular armed force? It consisted of six 
battalions of French Guards without officers; of six 
thousand soldiers who, from every part of France, had 
flocked singly to Paris, on reading in the newspapers the 
following expressions from General Lafayette: “They 
talk of deserters! The real deserters are those men who 
9 * 
