the reception of this present order
the municipal officers of each commune will convoke all citoyennes in
the Temple of the Eternal and urge them, in the name of the law, to
devote themselves to the labors of harvesting. Those women who fail in
this patriotic duty, shall be excluded from the assemblies, from the
national festivals, while all good citoyennes are requested to repel
them from their homes. All good citizens are requested to give to this
rural festivity that sentimental character which befits it."

--And the programme is carried out, here in idyllic shape and there
under compulsion. Around Avignon,[4295] the commanding officer, the
battalions of volunteers, and patriotic ladies, "the wives and daughters
of patriots," inscribe themselves as harvesters. Around Arles, "the
municipality drafts all the inhabitants; patrols are sent into the
country to compel all who are engaged on other work to leave it and do
the harvesting." The Convention, on its side, orders[4296] the
release, "provisionally, of all ploughmen, day-laborers, reapers, and
professional artisans and brewers, in the country and in the market
towns and communes, the population of which is not over twelve hundred
inhabitants, and who are confined as 'suspects.' "--In other terms,
physical necessity has imposed silence on the inept theory; above all
things, the crop must be harvested, and indispensable arms be restored
to the field of labor. The governors of France are compelled to put on
the brake, if only for an instant, at the last moment, at sight of the
yawning abyss, of approaching and actual famine; France was then gliding
into it, and, if not engulfed, it is simply a miracle.

Four fortunate circumstances, at the last hour, concur to keep her
suspended on the hither brink of the precipice.--The winter chances
to be exceptionally mild.[4297] The vegetables which make up for the
absence of bread and meat provide food for April and May, while
the remarkably fine harvest, almost spontaneous, is three weeks in
advance.--Another, and the second piece of good fortune, consists in the
great convoy from America, one hundred and sixteen vessels loaded with
grain, which reached Brest on the 8th of June, 1794, in spite of English
cruisers, thanks to the sacrifice of the fleet that protected it and
which, eight days previously, had succumbed in its behalf. The third
stroke of fortune is the entry of a victorious army into the enemies
country and feeding