In the meantime, the crowd of women increases on the Place de Greve, always with the same unceasing cry, "Bread!" and "To Versailles!" One of the conquerors of the Bastille; the usher Maillard, offers himself as a leader.

He is accepted, and taps his drum; on leaving Paris, he has seven or eight thousand women with him, and, in addition, some hundreds of men; by dint of remonstrances, he succeeds in maintaining some kind of order amongst this rabble as far as Versailles .-- But it is a rabble notwithstanding, and consequently so much brute force, at once anarchical and imperious.

On the one hand, each, and the worst among them, does what he pleases--which will be quite evident this very evening.

On the other hand, its ponderous mass crushes all authority and overrides all rules and regulations--which is at once apparent on reaching Versailles .-- Admitted into the Assembly, at first in small numbers, the women crowd against the door, push in with a rush, fill the galleries, then the hall, the men along with them, armed with clubs, halberds, and pikes, all pell-mell, side by side with the deputies, taking possession of their benches, voting along with them, and gathering about the President, who, surrounded, threatened, and insulted, finally abandons the position, while his chair is taken by a woman.[1434] A fishwoman commands in a gallery, and about a hundred women around her shout or keep silence at her bidding, while she interrupts and abuses the deputies: "Who is that speaker there?
Silence that blabbermouth; he does not know what he is talking about.

The question is how to get bread.