inpHoicc of the Breton Deputation 53 



it became apparent that the uew conferences were also 

 to end in failure, others too began to feel the necessity of 

 decisive action.' Of these man}- saw in the Breton Club, 

 which at this time assembled almost every evening,^ a 

 convenient means of preparation as well as a nucleus of 

 energy,^ so that its attendance and influence suddenly in- 

 creased enormously. It was undoubtedly, as Le Teo sup- 

 poses, at this time^ that Dubois-Crance jDresented him- 

 self at the club to ask admission for himself and the dep- 

 uties of several other hailUdf/es. 'Then," says this dep- 

 uty, ''the Breton Club became the club of all the deputies 

 recognized as the defenders of the cause* of the people."^ 

 For several days before the decisive 10th of June it had 

 been said that at the close of the proces-verhal of the con- 

 ferences the Third Estate would constitute itself an active 

 assembly,*^ but in the feeling, becoming each day more 

 intense, that a crisis faced the order, it was left for the 

 Breton Club to formulate a definite resolution. It was 



'Thus the deputies of Saint-Brieuc on June 5: "II y a meme long- 

 temps qu'on eut du prendre ce parti, que la Bretagne avait propose et 

 on commence a regretter de ne I'avoir pas fait." See also the letter 

 of June 3 in Relations des cvcnements, etc. La Revolution frangaise, 

 vol. XXIII, p. 467. Boulle, June 8. 



'All our evidence indicates that the month of June marks the period 

 of the greatest activity of the Breton Club. In the correspondence of 

 Pellerin numerous meetings are mentioned at the close of May and 

 the beginning of June. On June 5, Le Roulx wrote: "Nous avons 

 actuellement assemblee tons les soirs a la chambre provinciale." 



^See extract from Dubois-Crance, Aulard, I, Intro., XII. 



*La Revolution frangaise, vol. XXXVI, p. 391. 



Dubois-Crance says that on entering the assembly of the Breton 

 deputies, he repeated an expression which had been used in the as- 

 sembly of the Third Estate — "La noblesse tranche; le clerge ruse; 

 la cour corrompt; nous n'avons pas de temps a perdre pour dejouer 

 les complots de nos ennemis."- Aulard, I, Intro.. XII. These words 

 were pronounced in the evening session of May 29 by a deputy frojB» 

 Picardy (Hcrault de la nation. No. 50), so that Dubois-Crance must 

 have spoken them between that date and the 10th of June; otherwise 

 they would no longer have had any application. 



^Aulard, I, Intro., XII. 



"See note 1 above. 



259 



