30 Charles Kiihlmann 



CHAPTER II 



The Breton Deputies and the Breton Club in the 

 States General and the National Assembly. 



ORGANIZATION AND ORIENTATION 



Thus, toward the close of April, under the vivid impres- 

 sions of the confusion and dangers through which they 

 had passed in their province, carrying with them the pas- 

 sions, still glowing, engendered by an exceptionally bitter 

 strife, and in fear and distnist of the whole aristocratic 

 body, the deputies of Bretagne arrived at Versailles, men 

 tried in a common cause. Here they lost no time in pro- 

 curing the means of regular communication with each 

 other, for before all the deputies had arrived and while 

 they were still disquieted over the absence of Kervelegan,^ 

 of Quimper, they engaged a hall where on the 28th of 

 April they assembled for the first time.- As the States 



'That they feared actual violence at the hands of the Nobility is 

 shown by a letter of the deputies of Saint-Brieuc dated April 28, in 

 which they say: "M. le senechal de QTuimper n'est pas encore arrive 

 et cela nous inquiete, car nous avons beaucoup d'aristocrates ici." 



-The correspondence of the deputies does not agree as to the date 

 of the first meeting. Le Roulx states that the first meeting was held 

 on the 30th of April (letter of April 30). Boulle gives the same date, 

 but since in the original letter of Legendre of April 28 mention of a 

 meeting is already made, it must be that Le Roulx and Boulle refer 

 to the first meeting at which they ^oere present. 



The hall in which they met at first was not satisfactory, for on 

 April 28 Legendre wrote: "J'ai eleve des cris contre le choix de lieu 

 de nos assemblees qui ne pouvait convenir par cela meme que la salle 

 ne devoit rien couter, et j'ai ete nomme commissaire avec M. de Fer- 

 mond pour louer une autre grande salle." (Mss. Arch, of Brest). But 

 we are not informed whether a change was actually made. On April 

 30, Le Roulx wrote that they met in a "corps de logls." According 

 to a letter of Legendre on May 1, it was in "une salle tres vaste." 

 The statements of contemporaries and the voice of tradition agree in 



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