" "Yesterday," writes the Montreuil-sur-Mer municipality,[110]
"more than two hundred of our citizens set out to beg in the country,"
and, when they get nothing, they steal. "Bands of brigands[111]
spread through the country and pillage all dwellings anywise remote.
. . . Grain, flour, bread, cattle, poultry, stuffs, etc., all come
in play. Our terrified shepherds are no longer willing to sleep in
their sheep pens and are leaving us." The most timid dig Carrots at
night or, during the day, gather dandelions; but their town stomachs
cannot digest this food. "Lately," writes the procureur- syndic of
Saint-Germain,[112] "the corpse of a father of a family, found in the
fields with his mouth still filled with the grass he had striven to
chew, exasperates and arouses the spirit of the poor creatures
awaiting a similar fate."
What then, do people in the towns do in order to survive? - In small
towns or scattered villages, each municipality, using what gendarmes
it has, makes legal requisitions in its vicinity, and sometimes the
commune obtains from the government a charitable gift of wheat, oats,
rice or assignats. But the quantity of grain it receives is so small,
one asks how it is that, after two months, six months or a year of
such a system, that half of the inhabitants are not in the grave yard.
Pages:
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864