The Insurrection of October, i/Sp 15 



Young reports that rumor had increased the size of this army to 

 t,6oo. The people were quite surprised that he discredited the 

 stories of brigands and attributed the destruction of chateaux to 

 the peasants. 1 



Paris was in a continual state of fermentation. Laborers de- 

 manded work and tailors an increase of wages. Wig-makers 

 made public protests, and domestics united in a demand that the 

 Savoyards be sent away so there would be less competition. 

 Women went in crowds to -the Hotel de Ville to complain of the 

 bakers and demand that measures be taken to provide food for 

 the city. 2 There were continual disturbances over bread. 3 Gath- 

 erings at the Palais Royal became more and more tumultuous, 

 and Lafayette had much trouble in dispersing riotous mobs. 



One of the most exasperating things about the whole situation 

 was the fact that certain speculators were growing rich at the 

 expense of the public distress. "For money men have adulter- 

 ated the food of their brothers with a deadly mixture," says 

 Camille Desmoulins, after having gone over various intrigues of 

 speculators before the committee of investigation, "They have 

 said, 'What matter to me the sufferings, the sorrow, the groan- 

 ings of the poor provided I have money? What matter to me 

 the hospitals filled with scurvy patients, if I have money? What 

 matters it to me if a mother is in despair that she can give her 

 children no bread, if I have money?' " 4 



Under the influence of such language as this, it is no wonder 

 that for a long time there had been a great outcry against spec- 

 ulators and monopolists. Foulon, director of the war depart- 

 ment under Rroglie, had been especially execrated because of a 

 prevalent report that he had said the people should be made to 

 eat grass. He had been obliged to conceal himself, on the change 

 of ministers, but was discovered and brought back to Paris on 

 the 22d of July. So great was the popular fury against him 



1 Young, Travels in France, 151, 155. 



2 Bailly, Memoires, II, 276, 277; Revolutions de Paris, No. 6, 15-17; 

 Revue kislorique, LXVIII, 259. 

 3 Bailly, Mimoires, II, 351. 

 *Histoire parlementaire, III, 5, quotation from Camille Desmoulins. 



281 



