HIS ADMINISTRATION AS MAYOR. 197 



clays after the taking of the fortress. It is really inex- 

 cusable not to have compared the two dates, by which 

 these errors would have been avoided. 



Many persons very little acquainted with contempo- 

 raneous history, fancy that during the whole duration of 

 Bailly's administration, Paris was quite a cut-throat place. 

 That is a romance ; the following is the truth : 



Bailly was Mayor during two years and four months. 

 In that time there occurred four political assassinations ; 

 those of Foulon and of Berthier de Sauvigny, his son-in- 

 law, at the Hotel de Ville ; that of M. Durocher, a re- 

 spectable officer of the gendarmerie, killed at Chaillot, by 

 a musket-shot, in August, 1789 ; and that of a baker 

 massacred in a riot in the month of October of the same 

 year. I do not speak of the assassination of two unfor- 

 tunate men on the Champ de Mars in July, 1791, as that 

 deplorable fact must be considered separately. 



The individuals guilty of the assassination of the baker 

 were seized, condemned to death, and executed. The 

 family of the unfortunate victim became the object of 

 the anxious care of all the authorities, and obtained a 

 pension. 



The death of M. Durocher w^as attributed to some 

 Swiss soldiers who had revolted. 



The horrible and ever to be deplored assassinations 

 of Foulon and of Berthier, are among those misfortunes 

 which, under certain given circumstances, no human 

 power could prevent. 



In times of scarcity, a slight word, either true or un- 

 founded, suffices to create a terrible commotion. 



Reveillon is made to say, that a workman can live 

 upon fifteen sous per diem, and behold his manufactory 

 destroyed from top to bottom. 



