Meeting of the Estates-General, 1780. 49 
holding them would be less energetic. They are not our interests 
alone which we defend, Sire, they are yours, they are those of 
the state, finally, they are those of the French people.”’ 
The address closed with an ardent protestation of their loyalty 
to the king and of their sincere desire to co-operate in the great 
work for which they had been summoned: “Sire, patriotism 
and love of their kings have always characterized the nobility 
of your realm. The mandates which they have given to us prove 
to Your Majesty that they are the heirs of their fathers’ virtues. 
Our zeal, our fidelity in executing these, prove to them, as well 
as to you, Sire, that we are worthy of their confidence. In 
order to merit it still more, we will occupy ourselves unceasingly, 
with the great objects for which Your Majesty has conveked 
us; we will never have a desire more ardent than that of co- 
operating for the welfare of a people, upon the love of whom 
Your Majesty has set his heart.” 
Such a statement of good will must have reacted most favor- 
ably upon the king. . His speech, although not less flowery, was 
tempered by an appeal for their support of the scheme for con- 
ciliation, then being developed. But in view of their ardent 
protestations of affection for his person and their bitter ani- 
mosity toward the third estate, he might feel justified in be- 
lieving in the nobility’s readiness to sanction whatever might 
be done to thwart the usurpations of the national assembly. 
Certainly, the address must have given the opposition courage 
to force through their modifications of Necker’s plan in favor 
of the privileged classes. After assuring the delegation of his 
belief that patriotism and love for their kings had ever char- 
acterized the French nobility, the king went on to add: “I 
receive with deep feeling the new assurances which they have 
given me of these. I recognize the rights attached to birth. 
I will ever know how to protect and defend them. I shall know, 
at the same time, how to maintain, for the interests of all my 
subjects, the authority which has been confided to me and I 
shall never permit it to be altered. I count upon your zeal 
for the country, your attachment to my person; I expect, with 
confidence in your fidelity, that you will adopt the views of 
conciliation with which I am occupied for the welfare of my 
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