Meeting of the Estates-General, 1789. 133 
g 
Presumably, all external signs of their corruption, in the 
form of indifference to, or neglect of, their duty, were lacking 
until the work of demoralization was practically complete. To 
Besenval, the best proof that the insurrection of the guards 
was cleverly directed, lay in the circumstance that, until its 
entire defection, the body did not commit the least disorder, 
but performed its service with the utmost exactitude, and very 
few members ever failed to answer roll-call.4* Clearly, no 
direct evidence of any insubordination showed itself before the 
royal session. On the day before, however, two of the ministers, 
Montmorin and Saint-Priest, sent separate communications to 
the king who had asked their opinion of Necker’s plan for the 
royal session. In urging that he accept it without modification, 
both stressed the possibility of the disloyalty of the troops if 
it were not adopted. Their line of argument was that the 
third estate would reject the plan if the contemplated changes 
were made, that, as a result, the estates-general would: fail, 
and the treasury, which was empty, would remain so. Conse- 
quently, the troops could not be paid, and the king would be 
without any means of repressing the manifold disorders which 
would inevitably follow the separation of the estates-general.* 
Still, there is no indication that either man had in mind the then 
existing demoralization of the troops, or even that either had 
any knowledge of the situation at all. 
According to Maleissye, insurrection openly appeared at Paris, 
the morning of the royal session. He states that the first 
company of grenadiers of the regiment of the French Guards, 
which was ordered to reinforce the guard in Versailles that day, 
refused to take bread, saying that the third estate had it for 
The Histoire parlementaire is a compilation, but I have not been able to find 
the source from which this account was drawn, nor is it given in any other 
source available to me. 
48 Besenval, II, 352; Maleissye, 23. The latter tends to confirm the former 
on the matter of their attention to regular duties when he says, evidently in 
reference to the outbreak of June 25: ‘‘ Ce qui peut paraitre singulier c’est 
qu’a deux heures ces compagnies débandées eurent le plus grand soin de 
faire retourner a la caserne les soldats qui devaient étre de garde aux spectacles, 
afin que le service se fit.’’ 
49 The letters are quoted in full in the Revue historique, XLVI, 63-67. 
247 
