That evening a cabinet council was held at Marly. There were present M.
Necker, Minister of Finance; M. de Barentin, Keeper of the Seals; M.
de Puységur, Minister of War; MM. De Montmorin, De Saint-Priest, De la
Luzerne, and De Villedeuil.
It was obvious to everyone that affairs had reached a critical point,
and that the decision of the king must now turn the scale.
The Minister Necker, seeing that the royal intervention was necessary,
had formed a project of sufficient boldness to arrest the development
of that Revolution which some began to fear was on the eve of breaking
out. He proposed that the king should, in a royal session, order the
reunion of the three houses for the purpose of discussing measures of
common interest; but privileges, rights attached to fiefs, &c., were to
be discussed separately. However, the king was to promise the abolition
of all feudal privileges, such as the _corvée_, mortmain, &c., equal
admission of all Frenchmen to civil and military offices by merit, and
not by private patronage; also equality of taxation; he was to assure
to the States-General a share in the legislation, especially in the
measures calculated to touch individual liberty, the liberty of the
press, the reform of civil and criminal codes, and in the levying of
taxes.
If Necker's project had been accepted frankly, there is no reason to
doubt that the establishment of a constitutional monarchy upon the
English model would have been the extreme result of the convocation of
the States-General; but it was not accepted.
In the cabinet council of the 19th, there was apparent a general
disposition to accept the proposal of the Minister of Finance, with
slight modifications. The king appeared to be liberally inclined.
Necker urged the importance of coming to an immediate decision, as time
was of value. A majority of the ministers strongly favoured the scheme,
and Necker hoped to see it approved and adopted that night; but at
the last moment, whilst the portfolios were being closed, one of the
royal servants entered and whispered to the king, who rose instantly,
commanding his ministers to remain in their places.
M. de Montmorin, who was sitting by the side of Necker, said to him,
'We have effected nothing; the queen alone could have ventured to
interrupt a Council of State; she has been circumvented by the princes.'
When the king returned, after a delay of some minutes, it was to
suspend the council, leaving everything undecided, and postpone a final
settlement till the morrow.
When the council met again, it was weighted with the Count d'Artois and
the Count of Provence.
The conservative party triumphed, and thus deliberately rejected the
plank Necker offered them.
To return to Versailles. On the night of the 19th, the king had
resolved on closing the States-General till he summoned it on the 22nd
to a royal sitting.
At six o'clock in the morning of Saturday, the 20th, M. Bailly,
President of the National Assembly, received a letter from the Marquis
de Brezé, Grand-Master of the Ceremonies, of which this is a copy:--
'Versailles, 20th June, 1789.
'The king having ordered me, monsieur, to publish by heralds his
majesty's intention of holding, on the 22nd of this month, a royal
sitting, and in the interim, a suspension of the Assemblies, that the
preparations necessary for the halls of the three orders may be put in
hand, I have the honour of announcing the same to you.
'I remain, with respect, sir,
'Your very humble and obedient servant,
'The Marquis de Brezé.
'P.S.--I think it would be as well that you should kindly charge the
secretaries to look after the papers, lest they should get scattered.
Will you also kindly give me the names of the secretaries, that I may
ensure their admission? the necessity of not interrupting the workmen
requiring me to forbid permission to every one to enter.'
To this the president replied:--
'I have received, as yet, no order from the king concerning a royal
sitting, or concerning the suspension of the Assemblies, and my duty
is to betake myself to that Assembly, which I have summoned for eight
o'clock this morning.
'I am, sir, &c.'
In reply to this letter, the Marquis de Brezé repeated that he had
received orders from the king to have the hall prepared for a royal
session, and to close it against everyone.
In the meantime, an immense crowd had assembled in the Avenue de Paris
and the Rue des Chantiers to see and cheer the clergy as they entered
the hall to unite with the Third Estate. The delegates began to arrive
at half-past seven, and at a quarter to eight Bailly appeared with an
agitated face in time to see a detachment of French guards march into
the hôtel of the States-General and take possession of it. Bailly went
off to consult some friends, and did not return till nearly nine, when
he presented himself at the door of the hall and demanded admittance.
The officer in charge, the Count de Vertan, courteously declined to
admit him and the rest of the deputies, having received strict orders
from head quarters.
M. Bailly, with difficulty, obtained permission to enter a cabinet
adjoining the entrance, to draw up a protest against the exclusion of
the Assembly. The Count de Vertan then admitted the secretaries to
remove the papers. They found the major portion of the seats removed,
and all the avenues of the hall guarded by soldiers.
The excitement without became intense, and the streets rung with
remonstrances and protests against an arbitrary authority which
had thus insulted the representatives of the people. Bailly, with
difficulty, by standing on a flight of steps and shouting, collected
the delegates together; he then urged on them to remain till some place
suitable for continuing their meeting should present itself.
'To Marly!' shouted some. 'Let us go beneath the walls of the château,
and hold our session there. Let us show the proud Court that the Third
Estate is not to be humbled with impunity.'
'To Marly!' called others. 'Yes, we will march there at once, and make
the king hold his royal sitting amongst us, assembled in the open air.'
'Live the king!' was shouted; 'he is managed by our enemies. The queen
poisons his mind, but his heart is with the people.'
'Let us go to the Place d'Armes!' cried others.
'To the great Gallery!' was another suggestion; 'to the gallery where
the execution of him who pronounced the sacred word LIBERTY was so
lately signed.'
The mass of people began to roll towards the palace of Versailles. 'In
another twenty-four hours,' says Grégoire in his Mémoires, 'bullets
would have been flying against the old Court den.'
At this moment Bailly reappeared. He had secured the Tennis Court
in the Rue S. François of old Versailles; it was Dr. Guillotin's
suggestion.
Of all the monuments in Versailles, that old, plain, unfurnished Tennis
Court is the most interesting. The Englishman visiting Versailles
should not forget that the immense palace is but a monument of
despotism;--that its grandeur, such as it is, cries aloud of a pride
and selfishness so alarming, that Louis XIV burnt the bills for its
erection, not venturing to allow them to be seen, whilst France was
starving and sinking under a load of debt; while the Jeu de Paume, as
the birthplace of the nascent liberties of France, humble and unadorned
as it remains, is worthy of his most reverent regard.
It was a spacious room, without true windows, but with large openings
netted over, which admit light, air, and rain. The walls, covered with
yellow wash, were festooned with cobwebs, the roof was unceiled; the
floor rudely laid with common pavement, and unprovided with seats.
A chair was borrowed from the owner of the Tennis Court for the
president, but Bailly declined it. A table was brought in; the
secretaries seated themselves at it, and the president stood on a
bench. Two deputies stationed themselves at the door to keep it,
but were speedily relieved by the keeper of the Tennis Court, who
offered his services. Couthon was brought in on his crutches, and
to him the seat of the president was given, in consideration of his
infirmities. Grégoire, with his beautiful eyes alight with animation,
entered, followed by four other curés, Besse, Ballard, Jallet, and
Lecesve, in their black cassocks and cloaks. Rabaud-Saint-Étienne,
the Calvinist minister, was there, dressed in the uniform of the lay
delegates,--black coat, black waistcoat, black knee-breeches, and black
stockings. Dom Gerle, the Carthusian, was also there, with shaven
head, and white serge habit. Robespierre with his needle eyes, and
retreating forehead--Mirabeau shaking his Medusa-like head and locks,
and stamping with indignation--Mounier, prim and composed--Buzot, his
long face composed into a contemptuous smile, wearing his natural dark
hair divided over his brow, his heavy lids lifted a little to dart a
scornful glance around--Sieyez frozen as ever.
Bailly, rising, said, in a voice faltering with agitation,--'Gentlemen,
there is no need for me to give expression to the feeling dominant in
every breast. I propose that we deliberate on the part we should take
in a time so beset with storms.'
Mounier, standing on a form, said:--'It seems to me most strange that
we, the representatives of France, should find our hall occupied
by armed men, that we should be cast adrift in the streets without
shelter, that no official notice should have been sent to our
president, for I cannot regard the communication of the master of the
ceremonies as a notice;--that we should be obliged to take refuge in
this old tennis-court for want of a better room, in order that we may
continue our labours. I think all this is more than strange: it is a
proof to us that the Court party are resolved on wounding us in our
rights and our dignities, that they are determined by their intrigues
to exasperate the king against us, that they are bent on trampling the
liberties of the people under their feet. I propose, in the face of so
compact and resolute an opposition, that the representatives of the
nation should take a solemn oath to cling together till they have given
to France a constitution.'
This proposition was warmly received. An oath was drawn up, and Bailly,
mounting on the table, read it aloud:--'We swear never to separate from
the National Assembly, and to meet wherever circumstances shall permit,
till the constitution of this realm has been established and affirmed
on solid foundations.'
Instantly every arm was raised towards Bailly, and every mouth took
up the formula; and the mob without burst forth into shouts of 'Vive
l'Assemblée! Vive le Roi!'
On the morrow, the road to Marly was thronged with nobles and bishops
on their way to the king to beseech him to restrain the audacity of
the commons. A small minority protested against royal intervention; it
was composed of forty-seven members, the Dukes of Liancourt and of La
Rochefoucauld, Lally-Tolendal, the two Lameths, Duport, and La Fayette.
The royal sitting fixed for Monday, the 22nd, was postponed to the
23rd. All kinds of mean intrigue were had recourse to to prevent a
meeting of the Third Estate and the union with it of the house of the
Clergy on the Monday. The Count d'Artois sent to the owner of the
tennis-court and engaged it for the day, so that the Assembly was again
turned adrift in the streets of Versailles.
Lindet, mounting a cart which was passing, but which had been arrested
by the crowd that encumbered the street before the tennis-court, cried
aloud:--
'To the church of S. Louis! Where more suitable to see the reunion of
the orders?'
The cry was caught up and flung down the street,--
'To S. Louis!' and directly the mass of human beings began to move in
that direction.
It was eleven o'clock before the Assembly was seated in the vast nave
and choir of the cathedral church. The court had forgotten to close the
churches, and thus the magnificent scheme of the Count of Artois and
the Princes of Condé and Conté was defeated.
As soon as a table had been brought in from the sacristy, and the
secretaries had taken their places, the minutes of the meeting in
the tennis-court were read, and the president read a letter he had
received from the king, at two o'clock in the morning, announcing the
postponement of the royal session till the following day, and his
determination that the great hall of the Menus should remain closed
till then.
Several members who had been absent from the gathering at the
tennis-court then took the oath and attached to it their signatures.
These preliminaries over, Bailly announced that the Clergy were about
to arrive in a body at one o'clock, and formally unite with the Third
Estate, and he requested those ecclesiastics who were then in the
church to withdraw to the lodgings of the Archbishop of Bordeaux, where
the majority of the house of the Clergy were to assemble.
Immediately all those delegates who had taken possession of the seats
near the choir vacated them, to leave the place of honour free for the
bishops and clergy.
The shouts and applause roaring in the square before the cathedral,
like the advancing bore of the Ganges, announced to those within the
sacred building the approach of the ecclesiastics. All rose to receive
them as they entered and took their places in the choir, when with
loud voice each of the one hundred and forty-nine who had signed the
declaration of Friday, the 19th, answered to their roll-call, and
verified their names. The names of the Archbishop of Bordeaux, the
Bishop of Chartres, the Archbishop of Vienne, the Bishop of Rhodez,
of Grégoire, and of Lindet, who were known to be strenuous adherents
to the cause of liberty and justice, were received with thunders of
applause.
Then the choir gates were thrown open, and the Archbishop of Vienne,
followed by the clergy, descended to the nave to take their places in
the National Assembly.
'Gentlemen,' said the archbishop, 'we come with joy to execute the
decision of the majority of the deputies of the order of the clergy
to the States-General. This reunion is the signal and the prelude to
the constant and permanent union which they desire to cement with all
orders, and especially with the deputies of the Commons.'
'My lord and gentlemen,' answered the president; 'you see the joy in
our faces, you hear by our applause how great is the satisfaction in
our hearts, which your presence inspires. That presence here is due to
a pure sentiment,--the love of union and of the public weal. France
will bless this auspicious day, and will never forget those worthy
pastors who have thus announced before their country that they desire
above all things--Peace on earth to men of good-will.'
Lindet touched Grégoire's arm.
'We have saved the country.'
'All depends now on the king,' answered the curé of Emberménil. 'We
have acted right, as Christians and as patriots. If the king accepts
what is inevitable, all will go well; if he allows himself to be
forced into war, why then!----'
'Then what?'
'A Revolution is inevitable.'