In vain Bailly passes his nights with the committee on supplies; they are always in a state of terrible anxiety.

Every morning for two months there is only one or two days' supply of flour, and often, in the evening, there is not enough for the following morning.[1411] The life of the capital depends on a convoy which is ten, fifteen, twenty leagues off; and which may never arrive: one convoy of twenty carts is pillaged on the 18th of July, on the Rouen road; another, on the 4th of August, in the vicinity of Louviers.

Were it not for Salis' Swiss regiment, which, from the 14th of July to the end of September, marches day and night as an escort, not a boat-load of grain would reach Paris from Rouen.[1412]--The commissaries charged with making purchases or with supervising the expeditions are in danger of their lives.

Those who are sent to provinces are seized, and a column of four hundred men with cannon has to be dispatched to deliver them.

The one who is sent to Rouen learns that he will be hung if he dares to enter the place.