Secret emissaries, armed bands, went amongst the towns and cities where markets were held, and there disseminated the most alarming reports, provoking the people to tax grain and flour, stigmatising the corn-dealers as monopolists--the perfidious charge of monopoly being a sure sentence of death.

The fear of being accused of starving the people checked every speculation of business, and tended much more than actual want to the dearth of the markets.

Nothing is so scarce as a commodity which is concealed.

The corn-stores were crimes in the eyes of consumers of bread.

The Maire of Etampes, Simoneau, an honest man, and an intrepid magistrate, was one victim sacrificed to the people's suspicions.