Sunday night, about midnight
While we were at Lyons , and as I remember , the third day after our coming thither , we had like to have been involved in a state broil , without knowing where we were . It was of a Sunday in the evening , the people of Lyons , who had been sorely oppressed in taxes , and the war in Italy pinching their trade , began to be very tumultuous . We found the day before the mob got together in great crowds , and talked oddly ; the king was everywhere reviled , and spoken disrespectfully of , and the magistrates of the city either winked at , or durst not attempt to meddle , lest they should provoke the people . But on Sunday night , about midnight , we were waked by a prodigious noise in the street . I jumped out of bed , and running to the window , I saw the street as full of mob as it could hold , some armed with muskets and halberds , marched in very good order ; others in disorderly crowds , all shouting and crying out , `` Du paix le roi , '' and the like . One that led a great party of this rabble carried a loaf of bread upon the top of a pike , and other lesser loaves , signifying the smallness of their bread , occasioned by dearness . By morning this crowd was gathered to a great height ; they ran roving over the whole city , shut up all the shops , and forced all the people to join with them from thence .