political
questions at great length, but forgot to discuss the question of bread.

Great ideas sprang up at such times, ideas that have moved the world;
words were spoken which still stir our hearts, at the interval of more
than a century. But the people were starving in the slums.

From the very Commencement of the Revolution industry inevitably came to
a stop--the circulation of produce was checked, and capital concealed
itself. The master--the employer--had nothing to fear at such times, he
fattened on his dividends, if indeed he did not speculate on the
wretchedness around; but the wage-earner was reduced to live from hand
to mouth. Want knocked at the door.

Famine was abroad in the land--such famine as had hardly been seen under
the old regime.

"The Girondists are starving us!" was the cry in the workmen's quarters
in 1793, and thereupon the Girondists were guillotined, and full powers
were given to "the Mountain" and to the Commune. The Commune indeed
concerned itself with the question of bread, and made heroic efforts to
feed Paris. At Lyons, Fouche and Collot d'Herbois established city
granaries, but the sums spent on filling them were woefully
insufficient. The town councils made great efforts to procure corn; the
bakers who hoarded flour were hanged--and still the people lacked bread.

Then they turned on the royalist conspirators and laid the blame at
their door. They guillotined a dozen or fifteen a day--servants and
duchesses alike, especially servants, for the duchesses had gone to
Coblentz. But if they had guillotined a hundred dukes and viscounts
every day, it would have been equally hopeless.

The want only grew. For the wage-earner cannot live without his wage,
and the wage was not forthcoming. What difference could a thousand
corpses more or less make to him?

Then the people began to grow weary. "So much for your vaunted
Revolution! You are more wretched than ever before," whispered the
reactionary in the ears of the worker. And little by little the rich
took courage, emerged from their hiding-places, and flaunted their
luxury in the face of the starving multitude. They dressed up like
scented fops and said to the workers: "Come, enough of this foolery!
What have you gained by your Revolution?"

And, sick at heart, his patience at an end, the revolutionary had at
last to admit to himself that the cause was lost once more. He retreated
into his hovel and awaited the worst.

Then reaction