“Why then did not everybody refuse to buy, rather than expose sellers to such fearful danger?”
“There was soon no occasion for such an agreement. The shops were for the most part closed; and those which were not, displayed only the worst goods, while the better kinds still passed from hand to hand by means of secret bargains.”
“But what was done about the sale of bread and meat, and other articles of daily use?”
“The baker’s shop opposite our windows had a rope fastened from the counter to a pole in the street: and customers took their place in the line it formed, according to the order of their coming. Each customer presented a certificate, obtained from the commissioners appointed to regulate all purchases and sales; which certificate attested the political principles of the bearer——”
“What! could not he buy a loaf of bread without declaring his political principles?”
“No; nor without a specification of the quantity he wished to purchase.”
“What a length of time it must have taken to supply a shop full of customers!”
“I have often seen hungry wretches arrive at dusk, and found them still waiting when I looked out in the morning. Our rest was frequently disturbed by tumults, in which the more exhausted of the strugglers were beaten down, and trampled to death. The bakers would fain have closed their shops; but every one who did so, after keeping shop a year, was declared a suspected person; and suspected persons had at that time no better prospect than the guillotine.”
“This system could not, of course, last long. How did it come to an end?”
“The government called in the assignâts when they had sunk to three hundred times less than their nominal value. But this was not till more murders had been committed by the paper money than by their guillotine.”