ble-boys
to command them." Lafayette, indeed, since the departure or concealment
of the royalists, represents the old, fixed, and innermost opinion
of the capital. Paris submits to the Girondists as well as to the
Montagnards as usurpers; the mass of the public regards them with
ill-will, and not only the bourgeoisie, but likewise the majority of the
people loathe the established government.

Work is scarce and food is dear; brandy has tripled in price; only four
hundred oxen are brought in at the Poissy market instead of seven or
eight thousand; the butchers declare that there will be no meat in Paris
next week except for the sick.[3354] To obtain a small ration of bread
it is necessary to wait five or six hours in a line at the baker's
shops, and,[3355] as is customary, workmen and housekeepers impute all
this to the government. This government, which so poorly provides for
its needs, offends them yet more in their deepest feelings, in the
habits most dear to them, in their faith and worship. The common people,
even at Paris, is still at this time very religious, much more so than
at the present day. When the priest bearing the Host passes along the
street, the crowd "gathers from all sides, men, women, and children,
young and old, and fall on their knees in worship."[3356] The day on
which the relics of saint Leu are borne in procession through the Rue
St. Martin, "everybody kneels; I did not see a man," says a careful
observer, "that did not take off his hat. At the guard-house of the
Mauconseil section, the entire company presented arms." At the same time
the "citoyennes around the markets talked with each other to know if
there was any way of decking houses with tapestry."[3357] The following
week they compel the revolutionary committee of Saint-Eustache[3358]
to authorize another procession, and again each one kneels: "everybody
approved of the ceremony, no one, that I heard of; making any objection.
This is a striking picture.... I saw repentance, I saw the parallel each
is forced to draw between the actual state of things and the former
one. I saw what a privation the people had to endure in the loss of that
which, formerly, was the most imposing of all church ceremonies. People
of all ranks and ages were deeply affected and humble, and many had
tears in their eyes." Now, in this respect, the Girondists, by virtue of
being philosophers, are more iconoclastic, more intolerant than any
one, and there is no reason