"beggars
by race," those whom Retif de la Bretonne had already seen pass his
door, Rue de Bievre, on the 13th of July, 1789, on their way to join
their fellows on the suburb of St. Antoine,[2518] along with them "those
frightful raftsmen," pilots and dock-hands, born and brought up in the
forests of the Nievre and the Yonne, veritable savages accustomed
to wielding the pick and the ax, behaving like cannibals when the
opportunity offers,[2519] and who will be found foremost in the ranks
when the September days come. Alongside these stride their female
companions "barge-women who, embittered by toil, live for the moment
only," and who, three months earlier, pillaged the grocer-shops.[2520]
All this "is a frightful crowd which, every time it stirs, seems to
declare that the last day of the rich and well-to-do has come; tomorrow
it is our turn, to-morrow we shall sleep on eiderdown."--Still more
alarming is the attitude of the steady workmen, especially in the
suburbs. And first of all, if bread is not as expensive as on the 5th of
October, the misery is worse. The production of articles of luxury has
been at a standstill for three years, and the unemployed artisan has
consumed his small savings. Since the ruin of St. Domingo and the
pillaging of grocers' shops colonial products are dear; the carpenter,
the mason, the locksmith, the market-porter, no longer has his early
cup of coffee,[2521] while they grumble every morning at the thought of
their patriotism being rewarded by an increase of deprivation.

But more than all this they are now Jacobins, and after nearly three
years of preaching, the dogma of popular sovereignty has taken deep root
in their empty brains. "In these groups," writes a police commissioner,
"the Constitution is held to be useless and the people alone are the
law. The citizens of Paris on the public square think themselves the
people, populus, what we call the universality of citizens."[2522]--It
is of no use to tell them that, alongside of Paris, there is a France.
Danton has shown them that the capital "is composed of citizens
belonging one way or another to the eighty-three departments; that
is has a better chance than any other place to appreciate ministerial
conduct; that it is the first sentinel of the nation," which makes them
confident of being right.[2523]--It is of no use to tell them that there
are better-informed and more competent authorities than themselves.
Robespierre assures them th