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Taine, Hippolyte, 1828-1893

"The French Revolution - Volume 3"


I suppose that many of them live on what they raise in their gardens,
or on their small farms; others are helped by their relations,
neighbors and companions; in any event, it is clear that the human
body is very resistant, and a few mouthfuls suffice to keep it going a
long time. - At Ervy,[113] in Aube, "not a grain of wheat has been
brought in the last two market days." "To morrow,[114] Prairial 25, in
Bapaume, the main town of the district, there will be only two bushels
of flour left (for food of any sort)." "At Boulogne-sur-Mer, for the
past ten days, there has been distributed to each person only three
pounds of bad barley, or maslin, without knowing whether we can again
distribute this miserable ration next decade." Out of sixteen hundred
inhabitants in Brionne, "twelve hundred and sixty[115] are reduced to
the small portion of wheat they receive at the market, and which,
unfortunately, for too long a time, has been reduced from eight to
three ounces of wheat for each person, every eight days." For three
months past, in Seine et Marne,[116] in "the commune of Meaux, that of
Lafert?, Lagny, Daumartin, and other principal towns of the canton,
they have had only half a pound per head, for each day, of bad bread.


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