ili 
Meeting of the Estates-General, 1789. 147 
meager available reports, as early as seven o’clock, the king and 
his two brothers were in conference in the royal apartments.” 
Soon there arrived the presidents of the clergy and nobility, the 
Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld and the Duke of Luxemburg. 
With them came also the Duc de Croy, vice-president of the 
nobility, and the Archbishops of Aix and Rheims. Coster states 
that they were summoned at eight o’clock. When the Cardinal 
de la Rochefoucauld returned to the chamber of the clergy, 
he explained that they had found all the royal family united 
and in the greatest distress. The direct cause was a warning 
received by the king from Paris that morning to the effect that, 
if the union of the three orders did not occur that day, thirty 
thousand men would set out, resolved to surmount all obstacles 
which might be opposed to them, in order to besiege the estates- 
general and then the chateau. Count Mercy, in his dispatch 
of July 4, confirms this account in part. He states that, early 
in the morning of June 27, he went to Versailles to execute 
some private commissions of Joseph II and that, after the 
customary conference, he paid a visit to the queen. He found 
her in the deepest anguish as she let him see by her streaming 
eyes. She appealed to him for advice in such a critical situa- 
tion. . He adds that they had neglected to do anything that the 
circumstances demanded, but had done everything that should 
not have been done. Since what had been done could not be 
recalled, he took the liberty of presenting to the queen some 
general ideas relative to the avoidance of still greater mis- 
fortunes. He said to her that it was necessary, either to dismiss 
2 Histoire de la rév., 234-235; Barentin, footnote, 243. The latter gives 
neither time nor place, but says that the king’s brothers were with him when 
the presidents of the upper orders arrived. Moleville (I, 243), who evidently 
had the Histoire de la rév. before him, refers to the early conferences with 
the king. 
18 Coster, Récit, 344; Procés-verbal ... de la noblesse, 300; Barentin, 
footnote, 243; Histoire de la rév., 1, 235-236; Moleville, I, 244-245. All refer 
to the attendance of the Duke of Luxemburg, president of the nobility. All 
except the second mention the Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld. Coster and 
Moleville name the Archbishops of Aix and Rheims. The Procés and Mole- 
- ville mention the Duc de Croy. , 
261 
