Words are wanting to describe the sufferings of these long lines of
motionless beings, during the night, at daybreak, standing there five
or six hours, with the blast driving through their rags and their feet
freezing. - Vent?se is beginning, and the ration of bread is reduced
to a pound and a half;[138] Vent?se ends, and the ration of bread,
kept at a pound and a half for the three hundred and twenty-four
laborers, falls to one pound; in fact, a great many get none at all,
many only a half and a quarter of a pound. Germinal follows and the
Committee of Public Safety, finding that its magazines are giving out,
limits all rations to a quarter of a pound. Thereupon, on the 12th of
Germinal, an insurrection of workmen and women breaks out; the
Convention is invaded and liberated by military force. Paris is
declared in a state of siege and the government, again in the saddle,
tightens the reins. Thenceforth, the ration of meat served out every
four or five days, is a quarter of a pound; bread averages every day,
sometimes five, sometimes six and sometimes seven ounces, at long
intervals eight ounces, often three, two and one ounce and a half, or
even none at all; while this bread, black and "making mischief,"
becomes more and more worthless and detestable.
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