Influence of the Breton DcpiUation 47 



they had already for two weeks insisted upon the futility 

 of negotiations. They were at that very moment specu- 

 lating upon the advisability of renewing Le Ohapelier's 

 motion of May 14 and of constituting the National As- 

 sembl}'/ and now the king seemed to throw his authority 

 on the side of the privileged orders to embarrass the Third 

 Estate. They believed in the good faith of Louis XVI., 

 to whom, according to all our trustworthy evidence, they 

 were sincerely attached. The king had granted the Third 

 Estate of Bretagne many of the demands made at the 

 close of 1788 and the beginning of 1789,- for which a feel- 

 ing of profound gratitude had manifested itself through- 

 out the entire province. Their correspondence indicates 

 that the deputies fully shared this feeling upon their ar- 

 rival at Versailles.^ Until now the government had held 

 aloof from the contest between the orders, and to the 

 deputies of Bretagne its position seemed unknown.* Nor 

 did they wish to accept the letter of May 28 as an evidence 

 of the king's real attitude. Following a long-standing 

 tradition, they laid the blame upon the evil counselors 

 who surrounded him.^ 



But whatever their regard for Louis XVI., or whatever 

 their faith in his good intentions, they were not prepared 



'See note 2, p. 45, above. On May 26, Boulle wrote: "II me semble 

 que ce n'est plus le temps de temporiser et d'user de menagements et 

 que nous ne pouvons nous dispenser de prendre un parti dont ma 

 premiere lettre pourra vous instruire." Revue de la Revolution, vol. 

 XI, p. 50. 



^For these demands see Pocquet, Les origines de la Revolution en 

 Bretagne, II, chaps. 2 and 3. To these demands the election regula- 

 tions of the 16th of March, expressly for Bretagne, may be said to be 

 the response. Archives Natio7iales, BA25, liasse 43. Reprinted in 

 the Socictc d'Emulation with the correspondence of the deputies of 

 Saint-Brieuc. 



'See pp. 57-59, below. 



nbid. 



'TTiis thought is frequently expressed in the correspondence of the 

 deputies of Bretagne. See note 1, p. 59, below. 



253 



