It was known that the king had a taste for private speculation; he was accused of trading in grain and of buying up the stores required for feeding the people.

The odious rumor of this famine pact, as the bitter saying was, soon spread amongst the mob.

Before its fall, the Parliament of Rouen had audaciously given expression to these dark accusations; it had ordered proceedings to be taken against the monopolists.

A royal injunction put a veto upon the prosecutions.

"This prohibition from the crown changes our doubts to certainty," wrote the Parliament to the king himself; "when we said that the monopoly existed and was protected, God forbid, sir, that we should have had your Majesty in our eye, but possibly we had some of those to whom you distribute your authority." Silence was imposed upon the Parliaments, but without producing any serious effect upon public opinion, which attributed to the king the principal interest in a great private concern bound to keep up a certain parity in the price of grain.