12 Mae Darling 



The deputies met the next morning. May 5, in the Salle des 

 Menus, in the large main hall which had been prepared for the 

 occasion. ^^ They were admitted first to a sort of ante-room, 

 where they waited, with some impatience, the call of the herald at 

 arms, who admitted them into the hall. Biauzat states that this 

 call was made by bailliages, the deputies of the three orders of 

 each bailliage being called at the same time.*** After being 

 admitted to the hall, the deputies were conducted to the places 

 reserved for their respective orders.*^ Grimm describes this 

 room in which the estates met for their first session, as follows: 

 " It is a large and beautiful hall, one hundred-twenty feet long 

 and fifty-seven feet wide between the columns. These columns 

 are fluted, of Ionic order and without base, in the Greek fashion. 

 The entablature is enriched with ovolos and above rises the ceil- 

 ing, pierced by an oval in the middle. The light which comes 

 through this oval is softened by a canopy of white tafifeta. At 

 the two ends of the hall, there are two similar openings which 

 follow the direction of the entablature and the curve of the ceil- 

 ing; this manner of lighting the hall spreads everywhere a soft 

 and perfectly equal light. ... At the end of the hall, at the place 

 set apart for a platform for the king and the court, there had 

 been placed a magnificent dais, the curtains of which *were at- 

 tached to the columns [of the hall]. The enclosure, raised a 

 few feet in the form of a semicircle, was carpeted with violet 

 colored velvet, decorated with fleur de lis in gold. At the rear, 

 under a superb canopy, was the throne. On the left of the throne 

 stood an arm chair for the queen, and seats for the princesses ; 



2^ Biau*at, II, 28; Recit des seances des deputes des communes, 5; 

 Grimm, V, 124; Duquesnoy, I, 6; Journal des ctats-generaux, I, 3. 



*° Biauzat, II, 28; Rabaut, Precis, 72. Rabaut states that there was a 

 distinction made between the two orders in their entrance into the hall, 

 the privileged orders entering by a large door, while the third estate was 

 forced to use a small door in the rear. This statement is virtually con- 

 tradicted by Biauzat's account, and it is not mentioned by other members 

 of the third estate. It is probable that Rabaut, who did not write his 

 account until the fall of 1791, confused these events with those happening 

 at the royal session of June 23. 



•*! Biauzat, II, 28; Rabaut, Precis, 72. 



214 



