On the 27th of
October, at Vernon, a corn-merchant named Planter, who the preceding
winter had supported the poor for six leagues around, has to take
his turn. At the present moment the people do not forgive him for
having sent flour to Paris, and he is hung twice, but is saved
through the breaking of the rope each time. -- It is only by force
and under an escort that it is possible to insure the arrival of
grain in a town; the excited people or the National Guards
constantly seize it on its passage. In Normandy the militia of Caen
stops wheat on the highways which is destined for Harcourt and
elsewhere.[11] In Brittany, Auray and Vannes retain the convoys for
Nantes, and Lannion those for Brest. Brest having attempted to
negotiate, its commissioners are seized, and, with knives at their
throats, are forced to sign a renunciation, pure and simple, of the
grain which they have paid for, and they are led out of Lannion and
stoned on the way. Eighteen hundred men, consequently, leave Brest
with four cannon, and go to recover their property with their guns
loaded.
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