Meeting of the Estates-General, 1789. 5 
at Necker, the people’s idol, had resigned, caused great popular 
prehension, and it was only at the personal request of the 
ng that the minister consented to renounce his resolution to 
thdraw. 
; E Dhe momentous day of the royal session closed with the king 
and the third estate at open issue. It remained to be seen 
whether the king would enforce the decrees that had been pro- 
“claimed, whether the national assembly would persist in its 
opposition, and what the attitude of the clergy and the nobility 
Beosid be toward the stand of the third estate. Furthermore, 
* _ there were the questions of the preservation of harmony with 
_ Necker in the ministry, and of the loyalty of the troops to the 
_ government should it summon them to its aid in the evidently 
a Bapending struggle. 
II 
The sight that met the deputies when they assembled on 
. 24 was not one to inspire confidence in a peaceable settle- 
_ ment of the issue, or to appease a populace already stirred to 
3 excitement by the course of events. As on the previous day, 
bodies of the French Guards, probably several hundred in all, 
: - surrounded the hall, and again the representatives of the people 
were obliged to make their entrance in the midst of armed men 
_. who indicated the particular door of access which each order 
should use.!. But not only on the outside was a military display 
to be found. The interior of the hall as well was invested with 
_ troops.” Force was at hand, apparently in readiness to execute 
; 1 Boullé, Documents inédits, Revue de la rév., XIII, 73; Lettre d’un membre 
de lV’assemblée nationale, 38; Procés-verbal, No. 6, 3; Point du jour, I, 44; Du- 
- quesnoy, I, 125; Assemblée nationale, 1, 212; Courrier de Provence, Lettre XIII, 
12; Biauzat, II, 138; Jallet, 102, 103; Bulletins d’un agent secret, No. 47 (La 
révolution francaise, XXIV, 71). Of these sources the Procés-verbal, Boullé, 
and the Lettre state that the troops were French Guards. Bailly (I, 223), 
__re-affirms the same. The author ot the Lettre gives the number as four to 
five hundred. Boullé says: ‘‘ Trois barriéres extérieures établiés dans la 
rue a quelque distance l’un de l'autre étaient gardées par des gardes frangaises.” 
2 Procés-verbal, No. 6, 2; Bailly, I, 224. The second corroborates the first 
and adds that the officers name was Rennecourt. Evidently, the interior 
_ sentinels were ot the provost guard since the Procés-verbal states that “un 
___ Officier des gardes de la prévété de I’hdtel est entré,’’ while a committee of 
three was sent to the “‘ troupes placées a |’extérieur de |’hdtel.”’ 
119 
