There was also great and general distress.

For a moment in the autumn it had been relieved by a fall in the price of bread, which the unreasoning gratitude of the populace had attributed to the benevolence of the dauphiness; but the severity of the winter had brought it back with aggravated intensity till it reached even to the palace, and compelled a curtailment of some of the festivities with which it had been intended to celebrate the marriage of the Count de Provence, which was fixed for the approaching May.
Distress is the sure parent of discontent, unless the people have a very complete confidence in their government.

And this was so far from being the case in France at this time, that the distrust of and contempt for those in the highest places increased daily more and more.

The influence which Madame du Barri exerted over the king became more rooted as he became more used to submit to it, and more notorious as he grew more shameless in his avowal of it.

She felt her power, and her intrigues became in the same proportion more busy and more diversified in their objects.