About nine o'clock
To many of them , moreover , who had been accustomed to work of a refined description , agriculture seemed a degradation ; it was , in short , a mockery , a decisive breach of all the promises which had been made to them . If they offered any resistance , force would be employed against them . They had no doubt of it , and made preparations to anticipate it . About nine o'clock the riotous assemblies which had formed at the Bastille and at the Châtelet ebbed back towards the boulevard . From the Porte Saint-Denis to the Porte Saint-Martin nothing could be seen save an enormous swarm of people , a single mass of a dark blue shade , nearly black . The men of whom one caught a glimpse all had glowing eyes , pale complexions , faces emaciated with hunger and excited with a sense of wrong . Meanwhile , some clouds had gathered .