DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 32) mother not to fear death. I shall await it with firmness.’ Her energy, her high moral qualities, her devotion to her husband and children were dreaded by the leaders of the revolution. The king, from whose weakness they had nothing to fear, was still called the honest, the virtuous, the ill-advised. The queen was subjected to slanderous and murderous invectives, and against her the minds of the credulous people were effectually poisoned. It had been a year of unparalleled scarcity. Bread, the staple food of the people, was dear, and. a famine was imminent. The agitators seized on the first pretext to hound on the people against Versailles. On the Ist of October, the garrison of that place had given to their comrades of a newly arrived regiment a banquet, which had been graced by a visit from the royal family. The banquet was popularly represented as being an orgy, and the report was spread that a plot was being hatched to deprive the people of their liberty. On the 4th of October the populace collected in the streets of Paris and raised the cry for bread. A young girl entered a guard-house, seized a drum, and marched, beating it, and calling for bread through the streets. At once she was surrounded by a horde of fish-fags, who were followed by the rabble. As on the 14th of July, they pillaged the