12 Julia Crcziitt Stoddard 



caused suspicion of the king's good faith. Nor were the repre- 

 sentatives of the commune of Paris ready to support Bailly in 

 his efforts to relieve the scarcity. They opposed his influence 

 and hindered his usefulness. 1 Under these circumstances, secret 

 speculation going on among members of the committee, the king 

 half-hearted, perhaps unwilling in his support, and the commune 

 opposing his efforts, no wonder that Bailly cries out that he "led 

 a most frightful life providing the supply of food for Paris." 2 

 "For two months," he says on the 19th of June, "we never had 

 more grain than enough for one day." 3 The life of the inhab- 

 itants of Paris depended from day to day on the never-failing 

 punctuality and the unremitting vigilance of the municipal com- 

 mittee in looking after the important details of securing a supply.' 1 



As Paris and Versailles were alike dependent on government 

 importations for provision, it happened on one occasion that the 

 guard sent to escort the convoys to the latter place took more 

 than their just share of the wagons. This left Paris in such 

 desperate straits that Bailly, as soon as he heard of it, sent two 

 of his associates to Versailles with instructions to insist on the 

 immediate return of the wagons. They were to say that if those 

 wagons were not at the market before morning, Bailly would 

 call together the battalions and explain the matter to them. In 

 which case, Bailly significantly remarked, "there was reason to 

 believe that 30.000 men would go after them." 5 There was 

 plenty of grain at the Paris market before morning. 



Sometimes the grain received would be of inferior quality, and 

 when people began to complain and show an ugly disposition 

 toward the bakers, the committee was forced to explain that 

 although the bread undoubtedly tasted bad, from damage which 



1 Bailly, Memoires, II, passim. 



*Ibid:, II, 269. 



*Ibid., II, 283. 



4 Ibid., II, 290. " L'approvisionnement de nos subsistances dtait tou jours 

 si court dans ce moment que la vie des habitants de Paris ddpendait chaque 

 jour de l'exactitude des envois aux moulins de celle des meuniers a. mouclre 

 a. Paris. II fallait des personnes expressiment chargees de surveiller tous ces 

 objets." 



"/bid., II, 289. 



2 7 3- 



