Influence of the Breton Deputation 19 



probable, too, that Le Chapelier, Varin, Lanjuinais, and 

 GlezeD, who were sent in February by the avocats of 

 Kennes, joined the same body.^ Of the importance of 

 their work, Kerviler goes so far as to say that the impulse 

 to the revolutionary movement in Bretagne came from 

 this committee at Paris. ^ 



Owing to the position of their city as capital of the 

 province, the future deputies of Rennes became more inti- 

 mately concerned with the revolutionary movement even 

 than those of Nantes. Even before the provincial estates 

 opened at the close of December, the privileged orders 

 had resolved to refuse the demands of the Third Estate.^ 

 Rennes, where an unusually large number of partisans 

 of both parties had gathered,'* increased daily in excite- 

 ment, until on the 26th and 27th of January it became the 

 scene of a violent conflict in arms, in which a number on 

 both sides were killed or wounded. This incident and 

 the incriminations following it influenced profoundly the 

 entire future course of the Third Estate of Bretagne. It 

 fixed in the minds of its members the conviction that the 

 Nobility had contemplated the massacre of its leaders, 

 and created in it a hatred of the whole aristocracy, which 

 its deputies carried with them to the States General, be- 

 coming with some of their colleagues in the assembly 

 their distinctive mark.^ Even before this, a vague feel- 

 ing had existed that the issue might be reduced to a ques- 

 tion of arms. A league which had long existed between 

 the young men of Rennes, Nantes, Saint-Malo, and Angers 

 had been extended to many other cities of Bretagne, all 



'See p. 21. 



'Art. Defermon des Chapelieres. 



'Pocqiiet, II, 90-92, 144-145. 



^Ibid., II, chap. IV. 



'See pp. 51, 52, below. 



225 



