At Mantes a mob surrounds his cabriolet, the people regarding whoever comes there for the purpose of carrying away grain as a public pest; he escapes with difficulty out of a back door and returns on foot to Paris .-- From the very beginning, according to a universal rule, the fear of a short supply helps to augment the famine.

Every one lays in a stock for several days; on one occasion sixteen loaves of four pounds each are found in an old woman's garret.

The bakings, consequently, which are estimated according to the quantity needed for a single day, become inadequate, and the last of those who wait at the bakers' shops for bread return home empty-handed .-- On the other hand the appropriations made by the city and the State to diminish the price of bread simply serve to lengthen the rows of those who wait for it; the countrymen flock in thither, and return home loaded to their villages.

At Saint-Denis, bread having been reduced to two sous the pound, none is left for the inhabitants.

To this constant anxiety add that of unemployment.