Meeting of the Estates-General, 1789. 65 
- news of the coming of the minority of the nobility was, as some 
have suggested, enough of itself to arouse the people who were 
not certain that such a step would be permitted, but who, if it 
were possible, were eager to enjoy the sight.%” 
Whatever the motives that impelled them, the crowd forced 
the door on the rue des Chantiers*® and some are said to have 
gotten inside despite the opposition of the guards, when the 
disturbance arrested the attention of the assembly.*® It can 
well be imagined into what a predicament this threw the deputies 
and how very necessary it was that this delicate situation should 
be wisely handled. The opening of the door to the curious and 
interested throng would have been a public repudiation of the 
king’s express orders on June 23; the closing of the door in the 
face of the crowd would have been interpreted as an affront to 
the people of whose good opinion the assembly had so much 
need, and would have caused much more serious demonstrations 
than those of the previous evening.*® Something had to be done 
and that very quickly. 
Barnave seized the moment of indecision and suspense to 
utter a fiery denunciation against depriving the nation of access 
to the national hall.*4 ‘‘It is in this august spot that its interests 
87 Point du jour, I, 50: Bailly (I, 223) also gives this reason, but he may 
have read the Point du jour. Bulletin d'un agent secret, No. 47. (La révo- 
lution francaise, XXIV, 72.) 
38 Point du jour, 1, 50; Assemblée nationale, 1, 224; Jallet, 104. 
® Bailly, I, 233. 
40 Assemblée nationale, I, 224. This paper has summarized the situation 
very well. 
41 Duquesnoy, I, 129; Assemblée nationale, 1, 224-25. Both of these sources 
state that it was the disturbance of the people which led Barnave to take the 
floor. Jallet (104) confirms this, for although he does not give the speech, 
he says that Barnave made a motion to send a deputation to the king as the 
means of relieving the situation. The Procés-verbal and the Point du jour say 
nothing of Barnave. The Courrier de Provence, Lettre XIII, 13, gives this: 
“La proposition d’une adresse au roi pour demander le renvoi des troupes 
qui environnent la salle des états-généraux, a été reprise et soutenue par M. 
Barnave; et il a été arrété qu’on enverrait une députation A sa majesté; mais 
au moment ou l’on s’occupait de cet objet, on a appris qu'il y avait de la 
fermentation hors de la salle.’’ None of the other sources indicates that the 
matter of a deputation to the king was taken up before the popular disturbance. 
The Courrier de Provence, evidently has the order of events reversed. The 
179 
