The Insurrection of October, 1789 17 



be prepared to ward off starvation for a little longer when the 

 supply should fail. They hoarded up food secretly. One old 

 woman living in a garret had hidden away sixteen big loaves of 

 bread. 1 



There seemed to be some reason to fear the supply would fail. 

 "The boat which brought flour from the mills of Corbeil, and 

 which had come twice a day in the beginning of the revolution, 

 later came but once a day and finally only in the morning of one 

 day and the evening of the next." So it happened that on Mon- 

 day morning, the 5th of October, there was almost a total lack of 

 bread in the markets. 2 



And all this scarcity, the lack of bread after an abundant har- 

 vest, the obstacles to the circulation of grain, all this wretched 

 misery, was believed by the people to have been wilfully brought 

 about by the aristocrats. 3 The thought is monstrous, but it was 

 a time when everybody believed in conspiracies. 4 And what more 

 natural than that this people, crushed for centuries beneath a 

 cruel despotism, should be suspicious of their old-time enemies 

 when roused from the lethargy of hopelessness by the first breath 

 of liberty? 



The newspapers, moreover, publicly accused the aristocrats. 

 According to the Revolutions de Paris, of September 30, they 

 were saying among themselves that "popular rumors, riots, the 

 lack of bread, sooner or later, will rouse the people; they will 

 turn against the municipal officers, and the assemblies of the 

 communes, and will believe them guilty, will hunt them down 



^ailly, Mf moires, II, 299. 



2 Revolutions de Paris, No. XIII, 9; Capello, Dispacci degli ambasciatori 

 Veniti, 71. 



3 Bailly, Mimoires, II, 292. "Le recolte se faisait et elle £tait belle;" 

 Deux amis de la liberty, Histoire de la revolution de France, III, 148; 

 Revolutions de Paris \ No. XIII, 7, 9: "On regardait les obstacles des grains 

 et farines, comtne l'ouvrage des grands seigneurs propri£taires, laiques ou 

 ecclesiastiques. Le d£faut presque absolu des subsistances et la mauvaise 

 qualite" du peu de pain qu'on a distribue* dans la matinee du lundi ont rendu 

 palpable a tous les citoyens cette vdrite" qui avait beaucoup 6t6 r6pet€e la 

 veille; que s'il fallait se battre contre l'armde des conjures, il ne fallait pas 

 attendre que la faim nous eut entirement £nerv£e." 



4 Malouet, Mimoires, I, 311: " Je croyais comme tout le monde aux con- 

 jurations." 



283 



