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Meeting of the Estates-General, 1789. 13 
request and reported that he was to prevent strangers from 
-entering.'® Furthermore, his fidelity to the government was, 
apparently, not such as to keep him from announcing that there 
a was a door of interior communication about which he had no 
_ orders'*’—in all probability a circumstance arising from an 
oversight in the official instructions. Bailly writes that, when 
he was making his investigation, he had discovered a small 
_ door where there was neither password nor sentinel, but certainly, 
he did not mention that fact when he put the matter before the 
excited assembly.”° 
When, by personal report, the duty of the interior guard had 
been thus ascertained, the official record shows that the com- 
mittee to the outside guard imparted to the assembly the results 
of their inquiries. The commanding officer, the Count of 
18 Point du jour, 1, 45; Procés-verbal, No. 6, 2; Assemblée nationaie, I, 217. 
The first says: ‘‘ L’officier a exhibé des ordres écrits.’”’ The Procés-verbal 
states: “ Un officier des gardes . . . a dit.’”” The Assemblée nationale says: 
“Tl dit... .’’ However, this need not imply any inconsistency. The 
man may have told what his orders were and have shown the written orders 
in substantiation. In making reports of what happened, different witnesses 
seized different details. As to the contents of the order, the Assemblée nation- 
ale gives this: “ Il dit qu'il n’avait d’autres ordres que ceux d’obéir a l’assem- 
blée.”’ The Point du jour says of the written orders: “ dans lesquels il n’était 
point fait mention de la communication des autres chambres.”” The Procés- 
verbal has this: “ Et a dit qu’il était chargé d’empécher les étrangérs d’entrer 
dans la salle de l’assemblée.”’ 
19 Procés-verbal, No. 6, 2-3. On June 25, we find this in Bailly (I, 234): 
“Au moment de lever la séance, j’appris que M. de Rennecourt avait été 
mis aux arréts, pour le compte qu’il avait rendu hier a l’assemblée. Je fus 
trés affligé du malheur de ce brave homme. J’écrivis sur-le-champ 4 M. de 
Villedeuil, pour demander sa liberté; j’engageai quatre membres de l’assemblée 
a voir M. de la Chappelle, qui avait ordonné les arréts, et M. le Villedeuil, de 
qui cela dependait, comme ministre. M. de Villedeuil me répondit qu’il 
prendrait les ordres du roi. II les prit, et M. de Rennecourt eut sa liberté 
le lendemain.”’ Very clearly, this must have been the incident that the 
Assemblée nationale (J, 216), reported on the previous day: ‘‘ M. Bailly de- 
mands a l’assemblée si elle voulait nommer quatre députés pour solliciter 
aupres du grande prév6té l’élargissement d’un garde mis aux arréts, parce 
qu'il avait laissé entrer du monde dans la salle.’ The latter says the matter 
was referred to the assembly, but Bailly does not mention that action at all. 
Still Bailly may only be telling what the assembly empowered him to do. 
20 Bailly, I, 223-24. 
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