and more soldiers to London. Thus passed the week after
the great meeting; almost as large a one was held on the Sunday, which
went off peaceably on the whole, as no opposition to it was offered, and
again the people cried 'victory.' But on the Monday the people woke up
to find that they were hungry. During the last few days there had been
groups of men parading the streets asking (or, if you please, demanding)
money to buy food; and what for goodwill, what for fear, the richer
people gave them a good deal. The authorities of the parishes also (I
haven't time to explain that phrase at present) gave willy-nilly what
provisions they could to wandering people; and the Government, by means
of its feeble national workshops, also fed a good number of half-starved
folk. But in addition to this, several bakers' shops and other provision
stores had been emptied without a great deal of disturbance. So far, so
good. But on the Monday in question the Committee of Public Safety, on
the one hand afraid of general unorganised pillage, and on the other
emboldened by the wavering conduct of the authorities, sent a deputation
provided with carts and all necessary gear to clear out two or three big
provision stores in the centre of the town, leaving papers with the shop
managers promising to pay the price of them: and also in the part of the
town where they were strongest they took possession of several bakers'
shops and set men at work in them for the benefit of the people;--all of
which was done with little or no disturbance, the police assisting in
keeping order at the sack of the stores, as they would have done at a big
fire.

"But at this last stroke the reactionaries were so alarmed, that they
were, determined to force the executive into action. The newspapers next
day all blazed into the fury of frightened people, and threatened the
people, the Government, and everybody they could think of, unless 'order
were at once restored.' A deputation of leading commercial people waited
on the Government and told them that if they did not at once arrest the
Committee of Public Safety, they themselves would gather a body of men,
arm them, and fall on 'the incendiaries,' as they called them.

"They, together with a number of the newspaper editors, had a long
interview with the heads of the Government and two or three military men,
the deftest in their art that the country could furnish. The deputation
came away from that interview, s