On other occasions, the mob dispenses with their services and acts for itself.

If there happens to be no grain on the market-place, the people go after it wherever they can find it--to proprietors and farmers who are unable to bring it for fear of pillage; to convents, which by royal edict are obliged always to have one year's crop in store; to granaries where the Government keeps its supplies; and to convoys which are dispatched by the intendants to the relief of famished towns.

Each for himself--so much the worse for his neighbor.

The inhabitants of Fougeres beat and drive out those who come from Ernee to buy in their market; a similar violence is shown at Vitre to the in-habitants of Maine.[1119] At Sainte-Leonard the people stop the grain started for Limoges; at Bost that intended for Aurillac; at Saint-Didier that ordered for Moulins; and at Tournus that dispatched to Macon.

In vain are escorts added to the convoys; troops of men and women, armed with hatchets and guns, put themselves in ambush in the woods along the road, and seize the horses by their bridles; the saber has to be used to secure any advance.