Versailles 



39 



therefore wait to see if the crown will exert itself firmly on the 

 occasion, with such an attention to an improved system of 

 liberty as is absolutely necessary to the moment! AJl things 

 considered, that is, the characters of those who are in possession 

 of power, no well digested system and steady execution are to be 

 looked for. In the evening to the play : Madame Rocquere did 

 the queen in Hamlet : it may easily be supposed how that play 

 of Shakespeare is cut in pieces. It has however effect by her 

 admirable acting. 



22nd. To Versailles at six in the morning to be ready for the 

 seance royale. Breakfasting with the Due de Liancourt, we 

 found that the king had put off going to the states till to-morrow 

 morning. A committee of council was held last night which sat 

 till midnight, at which were present Monsieur and the Count 

 d'Artois for the first time : an event considered as extraordinary, 

 and attributed to the influence of the queen. The Count d'Artois, 

 the determined enemy of Monsieur Necker's plans, opposed his 

 system, and prevailed to have the seance put off to give time for 

 a council in the king's presence to-day. From the chateau we 

 went to find out the deputies ; reports were various where they 

 were assembling. To the Recolets, where they had been, but 

 finding it incommodious they went to the church of St. Louis, 

 whither we followed them, and were in time to see M. Bailly take 

 the chair and read the king's letter putting off the seance till 

 to-morrow. The spectacle of this meeting was singular — the 

 crowd that attended in and around the church was great, — and 

 the anxiety and suspense in every eye, with the variety of ex- 

 pression that flowed from different views and different characters, 

 gave to the countenances of all the world an impression I had 

 never witnessed before. The only business of importance trans- 

 acted, but which lasted till three o'clock, was receiving the oaths 

 and the signatures of some deputies, who had not taken them 

 at the Jeu de paume ; and the union of three bishops and 150 of 

 the deputies of the clergy, who came to verify their powers, and 

 were received by such applause, with such clapping and shout- 

 ing from all present, that the church resounded. Apparently 

 the inhabitants of Versailles, which having a population of 

 60,000 people can afford a pretty numerous mob, are to the last 

 person in the interest of the commons : remarkable, as this town is 

 absolutely fed by the palace, and if the cause of the court is not 

 popular here, it is easy to suppose what it must be in all the rest 

 of the kingdom. Dine with the Due de Liancourt in the palace, 

 a large party of nobility and deputies of the commons, the Due 



