When Paris awoke on the morning of the 5th of October, it was
without bread. People lacked their most indispensable article of
food.
At the outset, the women, who received these dreadful tidings at the
bake-shops, returned dumb with horror to their families, to announce
to their households and their hungry children: "There is no bread
to-day! The supply of flour is exhausted! We must starve! There is
no more bread to be had!"
And from the dark abode of the poor, the sad cry sounded out into
the narrow and dirty streets and all the squares, "Paris contains no
bread! Paris must starve!"
The women, the children uttered these cries in wild tones of
despair. The men repeated the words with clinched fists and with
threatening looks: "Paris contains no more bread! Paris must
starve!"
"And do you know why Paris must starve?" croaked out a voice into
the ears of the people who were crowding each other in wild
confusion on the Place de Carrousel.
"Do you know who is the cause of all this misery and want?"
"Tell us, if you know!" cried a rough man's voice.
"Yes, yes, tell us!" shouted other voices. "We want to know!"
"I will tell you," answered the first, in rasping tones; and now
upon the stones, which indicated where the carriage-road crossed the
square, a little, shrunken, broad-shouldered figure, with an
unnaturally large head, and ugly, crafty face, could be seen.
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