166 Jeanette Needham. 
contents, as well as the reputed copies of the letter, indicate 
that it was very brief, but despite its brevity, it served to break 
the opposition, although not to overcome it. The Comte de 
Saint-Simon is said to have exclaimed impulsively, putting his 
hand on his sword: ‘‘The king is in danger, gentlemen; let us 
go to the chateau, our place is with the king.” M. de Cazalez 
cried out something to the effect that if the monarch was en- 
dangered, so also was the monarchy, that it was necessary to save 
it first, and that the separation of orders was its sole support. 
The indications are that the debate was about to break out 
again when the Duke of Luxemburg took things into his own 
hands, saying in effect: “It is not a question of deliberating, 
gentlemen, but of saving the king; his person seems to be in 
danger; who of us could hesitate for an instant?’’* At this 
turn in affairs, the Vicomte de Mirabeau was much embarrassed 
by the oath he had taken. With the chamber’s consent, the 
president is said to have freed him from his rash vow, that he 
might accompany the rest of the order. 
In spite of their decision to yield to the king’s will, members 
bound by imperative mandates began to submit reservations, 
just as they. had done on June 25 when the chamber voted to 
accept the first declaration of the king. It is claimed that for 
almost two hours those in favor of obeying the king’s letter 
worked to induce their opponents to renounce their intention 
of loading down the record with their protests, but all to no 
purpose.!® Only seventeen of these protests came in on June 27, 
but sixty others of like tenor, defining the position of their 
authors in the matter of a single assembly and vote by head, 
followed on June 30, and the first days of July.’” 
18 Moleville, I, 248. 
14 Tbid., 1, 248; Histoire de la rév., I, 240. The two versions vary some- 
what, indicating their probable independence. 
16 Histoire de la rév., I, 240. 
16 Histoire de la rév., 239-240. 
17 Procés-verbal . . . de la noblesse, 304-349. All are fully analyzed in 
“The Counter Revolution of June-July, 1789: Réle of the Assembly from 
June 30 to July 11,” by E. L. Howie, Univ. Studies of the University of Nebraska, 
July—October, 1915. 
280 
