my honor (je jure par la saine verite
de mon coeur) that for two years I have indulged no fancy of my own or
spent anything except on household expenses. Nevertheless, I have urgent
need of some things for which I should require piles of assignats."--We
see by Beaumarchais' correspondence that one of his friends travels
around in the environs of Paris to find bread. "It is said here (he
writes from Soizy, June 5, 1795) that flour may be had at Briare. If
this were so I would bargain with a reliable man there to carry it to
you by water-carriage between Briare and Paris... In the mean time I
do not despair of finding a loaf."--Letter of a friend of Beaumarchais:
"This letter costs you at least one hundred francs, including paper,
pen, ink, and lamp-oil. For economy's sake I write it in your house."]

[Footnote 42142: Cf. Schmidt, "Tableaux de Paris," vols. II. and III.
(Reports of the Police, at the dates designated.)]

[Footnote 42143: Dauban, "Paris en 1794," pp.562, 568, 572.]

[Footnote 42144: Mallet-Dupan, "Correspondance avec la cour de Vienne,"
I., 254. (July 18, 1795.)]

[Footnote 42145: Schmidt, ibid. (Report of Fructidor 3, year III.)]

[Footnote 42146: Schmidt, ibid., vols. II. and III. (Reports of the
police at the dates designated.)]

[Footnote 42147: Meissner, "Voyage a Paris," 132. Ibid., 104. "Bread
is made with coarse, sticky black flour, because they put in potatoes,
beans, Indian corn and millet, and moreover it is badly baked."--Granier
de Cassagnac, "Histoire du Directoire," I., 51. (Letter of M. Andot to
the author.) "There were three-quarter pound days, one-half pound and
one-quarter pound days and many at two ounces. I was a child of twelve
and used to go and wait four hours in the morning in a line, rue de
l'Ancienne Comedie. There was a fourth part of bran in the bread, which
was very tender and very soft.... and it contained one-fourth excess of
water. I brought back eight ounces of bread a day for the four persons
in our household."]

[Footnote 42148: Dauban, 586.]

[Footnote 42149: Schmidt, ibid. (Reports of Brumaire 24, and Frimaire
13, year IV.)]

[Footnote 42150: This state of misery is prolonged far beyond this
epoch in Paris and the provinces. ~f. Schmidt, "Tableaux de Paris,"
vol. III.-Felix Rocquam, "L'Etat de la France au 18e Brumaire," p.156.
(Report by Fourcroy, Nivose 5, year IX.) Convoys of grain fail to reach
Brest because the English are masters at sea, while the roads