Contemporaries "do not know what to think of such a scourge;[1114] they cannot comprehend how such a vast number of criminals, without visible leaders, agree amongst themselves everywhere to commit the same excesses just at the time when the States-General are going to begin their sittings." The reason is that, under the ancient regime, the conflagration was smoldering in a closed chamber; the great door is suddenly opened, the air enters, and immediately the flame breaks out.
III .-- The provinces during the first six months of 1789 Effects of the famine.
At first there are only intermittent, isolated fires, which are extinguished or go out of themselves; but, a moment after, in the same place, or very near it, the sparks again appear.

Their number, like their recurrence, shows the vastness, depth, and heat of the combustible matter, which is about to explode.

In the four months, which precede the taking of the Bastille, over three hundred outbreaks may be counted in France.

They take place from month to month and from week to week, in Poitou, Brittany, Touraine, Orleanais, Normandy, Ile-de-France, Picardy, Champagne, Alsace, Burgundy, Nivernais, Auvergne, Languedoc, and Provence.

On the 28th of May the parliament of Rouen announces robberies of grain, "violent and bloody tumults, in which men on both sides have fallen," throughout the province, at Caen, Saint-Lo, Mortain, Granville, Evreux, Bernay, Pont-Andemer, Elboeuf; Louviers, and in other sections besides.