When the representatives of the people of France, to the number of
more than twelve hundred, came together in a great hall in the palace
at Versailles on the 5th of May, 1789, the king opened the session,
with the queen and royal princes beside him on a throne gorgeous with
purple and gold. Immediately in front of him sat his ministers, and in
other parts of the hall were the three orders in separate groups. The
nobles were brilliant in ruffles and plumes. The Third Estate was sober
enough in dress, but there were six hundred of them; twice as many in
proportion as had ever been allowed in a similar gathering. Most of
them were lawyers; only forty belonged to the farming class. In the
group of clergy some wore the flaming scarlet robes of cardinals, some
the plain cassocks of village priests; and events proved that these
last were brothers in spirit with the six hundred. The galleries were
crowded with ladies and courtiers and envoys from distant lands. Even
roofs of neighboring houses were covered with spectators bent on seeing
all they could.
[Pg 192]The queen looked anxious. She had no fondness for reforms;
but of the two upon the throne she had the stronger character and was
therefore the better king. She was brave, quick to decide, and daring
to execute. Unfortunately she was also narrow-minded and had little
sympathy with the common people. Louis had already proved himself a
complete failure as a ruler. He was a good husband, a lover of hunting,
and a passable locksmith. It was a bit of tragic irony that his hobby
should have been the making of little, smoothly turning locks. After
his one attempt at reform he had not even tried to govern, but spent
his days in meaningless detail, while the country drifted toward ruin.
Necker, who was once more in charge of the treasury, meant to keep
the States General very busy with the duty for which they had been
convened, that of providing money. But if the Notables had been
refractory, this assembly was downright rebellious. A quarrel developed
at the very outset about the manner of voting. In previous States
General the three orders had held their meetings separately, and in
final decisions each order had cast only one vote. The nobles and
clergy could be counted on to vote the same way, which gave them a safe
majority of two to one. Expecting the rule to hold this time, very
little objection had been raised to the proposal that the Third Estate
elect six hundred representatives instead of three hundred. The people
liked it and it meant nothing at all. Now that the six hundred had been
elected, however, they contended that the three orders must sit in one
[Pg 193]assembly and that each man's vote be counted separately, which
made all the difference in the world. A few liberals among the nobles
and more than a few of the clergy in simple cassocks appeared to agree
with them. The quarrel continued for six weeks, and meanwhile neither
party was able to do any work.
At the end of that time the number favoring the new way of voting had
increased. These declared themselves to be the National Assembly of
France and that they meant to begin the work of "national regeneration"
at once, whether the others joined them or not. Reforms were to be
along lines indicated in the _cahiers_, or written statements of
grievances, that voters had been urged to draw up at the time of the
election. Tens of thousands of these had been received, some written
in the polished phrases of courtiers, some in the earnest, ill-chosen
words of peasants. All expressed loyalty to the king; and almost all
demanded a constitution to define the rights of people and king alike.
Among other things they asked that _lettres de cachet_ be abolished;
that the people be allowed liberty of speech; that the States General
meet at regular intervals; and that each of the three orders pay its
just share of the taxes.
Soon after the liberals declared their intention of going to work
they found the great hall at Versailles closed and were told curtly
that it was being prepared for a royal session. They retired to a
near-by tennis-court, lifted the senior representative from Paris, an
astronomer named Bailly, to a table, elected him president of their
[Pg 194]National Assembly, and took an oath not to disband until they
had given France a constitution. A few days later the king summoned all
the members of the States General to the great hall, scolded them for
their recent acts in a speech written by somebody else, commanded that
each order meet in future by itself, and left the hall to the sound
of trumpets and martial music. The clergy and the nobles obediently
withdrew. The Third Estate and a few liberals from the other orders
remained. The king's master of ceremonies, a very important personage
indeed, came forward and repeated the king's order. Soldiers could be
seen behind him. There was a moment's silence; then Mirabeau, a homely,
brilliant nobleman from the south of France, who had been rejected by
his own order, but elected by the Third Estate, advanced impetuously
toward the master of ceremonies, crying, in a loud voice, "Go tell your
master that we are here by the will of the people, and that we shall
not leave except at the point of the bayonet." Next he turned to the
Assembly and made a motion to the effect that persons laying hands upon
any member of the Assembly would be considered "infamous and traitors
to the nation--guilty of capital crime." The master of ceremonies
withdrew and reported the scene to the king. Louis, weak as water,
said: "They wish to remain? Let them." And they did remain, to his
undoing.
[Illustration: THE BASTILLE