more work to be had; "the work-rooms are deserted;" often, after
waiting a whole day, the workman returns home empty-handed. When he
does bring back a four-pound loaf it costs him 3 francs 12 sous;
that is, 12 sous for the bread, and 3 francs for the lost day. In
this long line of unemployed, excited men, swaying to and fro before
the shop-door, dark thoughts are fermenting: "if the bakers find no
flour to-night to bake with, we shall have nothing to eat to-
morrow." An appalling idea; -- in presence of which the whole power
of the Government is not too strong; for to keep order in the midst
of famine nothing avails but the sight of an armed force, palpable
and threatening. Under Louis XIV and Louis XV there had been even
greater hunger and misery; but the outbreaks, which were roughly and
promptly put down, were only partial and passing disorders. Some
rioters were at once hung, and others were sent to the galleys. The
peasant or the workman, convinced of his impotence, at once returned
to his stall or his plow. When a wall is too high one does not even
think of scaling it. -- But now the wall is cracking -- all its
custodians, the clergy, the nobles, the Third-Estate, men of
letters, the politicians, and even the Government itself, making the
breach wider. The wretched, for the first time, discover an issue:
they dash through it, at first in driblets, then in a mass, and
rebellion becomes as universal as resignation was in the past.


II.

Expectations the second cause. - Separation and laxity of the
administrative forces. - Investigations of local assemblies. - The
people become aware of their condition. - Convocation of the
States-General. - Hope is born. The coincidence of early