I enquired of a man who was sawing wood for us this morning, what the bells clattered for last night. "L’on m’a dit (answered he) que c’est pour quelque ville que quelque general de la republique a prise.  Ah! ca nous avancera beaucoup; la paix et du pain, je crois, sera mieux notre affaire que toutes ces conquetes." ["They say its for some town or other, that some general or other has taken.—­Ah! we shall get a vast deal by that—­a peace and bread, I think, would answer our purpose better than all these victories.”] I told him he ought to speak with more caution. "Mourir pour mourir, [One death’s as good as another.] (says he, half gaily,) one may as well die by the Guillotine as be starved.  My family have had no bread these two days, and because I went to a neighbouring village to buy a little corn, the peasants, who are jealous that the town’s people already get too much of the farmers, beat me so that I am scarce able to work."*—­

     * "L’interet et la criminelle avarice ont fomente et entretenu des
     germes de division entre les citoyens des villes et ceux des
     campagnes, entre les cultivateurs, les artisans et les commercans,
     entre les citoyens des departements et districts, et meme des
     communes voisines.  On a voulu s’isoler de toutes parts.” 
                    Discours de Lindet.

“Self-interest and a criminal avarice have fomented and kept alive the seeds of division between the inhabitants of the towns and those of the country, between the farmer, the mechanic, and the trader—­ the like has happened between adjoining towns and districts—­an universal selfishness, in short, has prevailed.”  Lindet’s Speech.

     This picture, drawn by a Jacobin Deputy, is not flattering to
     republican fraternization.

—­It is true, the wants of the lower classes are afflicting.  The whole town has, for some weeks, been reduced to a nominal half pound of bread a day for each person—­I say nominal, for it has repeatedly happened, that none has been distributed for three days together, and the quantity diminished to four ounces; whereas the poor, who are used to eat little else, consume each, in ordinary times, two pounds daily, on the lowest calculation.

We have had here a brutal vulgar-looking Deputy, one Florent-Guyot, who has harangued upon the virtues of patience, and the magnanimity of suffering hunger for the good of the republic.  This doctrine has, however, made few converts; though we learn, from a letter of Florent-Guyot’s to the Assembly, that the Amienois are excellent patriots, and that they starve with the best grace possible.