Meeting of the Estates-General, 1789. 19I 
before the general session at ten o’clock, ‘‘indicated by the. 
president of the two other orders.’’* | 
Furthermore, this interpretation of the significance of the 
union is confirmed by another occurrence which took place on 
June 28. On that day, Barentin sent a courrier out to Bailly 
who had left the city, with a message inviting the latter to come 
to Versailles to confer with the presidents of the other two 
orders in regard to the preliminaries for holding the general 
assembly. Bailly was loath to yield to the summons, first, 
because it meant the loss of a day of his vacation, and second, 
because he would have to face an attack upon his position as’ 
president of the national assembly. He was determined not to 
compromise the stand that the assembly had taken, he says, 
but felt the need of having some approval of his decision. It was 
not easy to find any of the deputies during the vacation. but he 
bethought himself of the Duc d’Orléans. He found the duke 
with the Marquis of Sillery, disclosed his intentions to them, and 
secured their sanction. At three o’clock, then, he says that he 
set out for Versailles where the conference was to be held at five. 
At the home of the guard of the seals, he found the Duke of Croy, 
vice-president of the nobility, representing the Duke of Luxem- 
bourg, and the Cardinal de La Rochefoucauld, accompanied by 
the Archbishop of Aix, for the minority of the clergy. Bailly- 
says that, as he had surmised, the question of the presidency 
was the point of the discussion. Their contention was that the 
president of the clergy should preside over the general assembly, 
but Bailly adds that he met their arguments so effectively that 
this bold demand was practically abandoned. Finally, they 
proposed that the leaders of the two upper orders should sit on 
the front benches and each have a table before him, as a mark 
of recognition. Bailly continues that he told them that such a 
privilege could be accorded only by the assembly itself. Thus . 
the conference ended.” In every respect the government was 
2 Procés-verbal . . . de la noblesse, 304. 
26 Biauzat, II, 147-148; Bailly, I, 256-260. ’ Biauzat, writing from Paris 
under date of June 29, 1789, says: ‘‘ J’ai appris, sur les huit heurés du soir, 
que M. le garde des sceaux avait écrit hier 4 M. Bailly, notre président, pour 
l’inviter 4 se rendre a la chancellerie aujourd’hui sur les cing heures, afin d’y 
305 
