The poissardes went before and around the carriage of their Majesties, Crying, “We shall no longer want bread!  We have the baker, the baker’s wife, and the baker’s boy with us!” In the midst of this troop of cannibals the heads of two murdered Body Guards were carried on poles.  The monsters, who made trophies of them, conceived the horrid idea of forcing a wigmaker of Sevres to dress them up and powder their bloody locks.  The unfortunate man who was forced to perform this dreadful work died in consequence of the shock it gave him.

[The King did not leave Versailles till one o’clock.  The Queen, the Dauphin, Madame Royale, Monsieur, Madame Elisabeth, and Madame de Tourzel were in his Majesty’s carriage.  The hundred deputies in their carriages came next.  A detachment of brigands, bearing the heads of the two Body Guards in triumph, formed the advance guard, and set out two hours earlier.  These cannibals stopped a moment at Sevres, and carried their cruelty to the length of forcing an unfortunate hairdresser to dress the gory heads; the bulk of the Parisian army followed them closely.  The King’s carriage was preceded by the ‘poissardes’, who had arrived the day before from Paris, and a rabble of prostitutes, the vile refuse of their sex, still drunk with fury and wine.  Several of them rode astride upon cannons, boasting, in the most horrible songs, of the crimes they had committed themselves, or seen others commit.  Those who were nearest the King’s carriage sang ballads, the allusions in which by means of their vulgar gestures they applied to the Queen.  Wagons, full of corn and flour,—­which had been brought into Versailles, formed a train escorted by grenadiers, and surrounded by women and bullies, some armed with pikes, and some carrying long branches of poplar.  At some distance this part of the procession had a most singular effect:  it looked like a moving forest, amidst which shone pike-heads and gun-barrels.  In the paroxysms of their brutal joy the women stopped passengers, and, pointing to the King’s carriage, howled in their ears:  “Cheer up, friends; we shall no longer be in want of bread!  We bring you the baker, the baker’s wife, and the baker’s little boy!” Behind his Majesty’s carriage were several of his faithful Guards, some on foot, and some on horseback, most of them uncovered, all unarmed, and worn out with hunger and fatigue; the dragoons, the Flanders regiment, the hundred Swiss, and the National Guards preceded, accompanied, or followed the file of carriages.  I witnessed this heartrending spectacle; I saw the ominous procession.  In the midst of all the tumult, clamour, and singing, interrupted by frequent discharges of musketry, which the hand of a monster or a bungler might so easily render fatal, I saw the Queen preserving most courageous tranquillity of soul, and an air of nobleness and inexpressible dignity, and my eyes were suffused with tears of admiration and grief.—­“Memoirs of Bertrand de Molleville.”]