20 Mae Darling 



At the close of Necker's speech, the king and the queen with 

 their court, arose and left the hall. The session was at an end.®^ 



y a paru prevention pour le roi et les deux premiers ordres. Apres avoir 

 entraine le tiers dans des opinions exageres par son Rcsultat, apres avoir 

 donne dans les provinces les esperances les plus fortes, il parait se 

 dementir." 



A question arises as to the authorship of the Bulletins d'un agent secret, 

 published in the Revolution frangaise. Brette, in an introduction tp the 

 bulletins (pages 348-350), attributes them to a sort of reporter, " un de ces 

 fameliques ecrivains," -who were making a business of writing up the 

 events of the revolution. He is of the opinion that the bulletins were 

 addressed to one of the ministers, probably Puysegur. It is evident that 

 Brette has made a mistake both in regard to the authorship of the bulletins 

 and also as to the person to whom they were addressed. In bulletin 4, pages 

 3S4> 355, the writer urges the person to whom the bulletins are addressed 

 to stop the publication of Necker's address, for the sake of saving Necker 

 from the consequences of such a publication. He closes by saying, "Je 

 regrette qu'il ait fait ce discours et tous ses amis pensent comme moi." 

 This could hardly have been written by an enemy of Necker's. A still 

 more conclusive proof that the bulletins were written by a friend of 

 Necker's and were not addressed to Puysegur is found in bulletin ^y, page 

 531. We read : " Tout ce qui tient a M. Necker e'st devenu suspect. Nous 

 le disons avec peine, mais nous devons le dire. Les liaisons intimes de M. 

 le comte de Montmorin avec M. Necker font le plus grand tort a M. le 

 comte; on craint qu'il ne soit entraine dans la chute du directeur general 

 et cette chute est regardee comme certaine." No one would have written 

 this to a person who was as hostile to Montmorin as was Puysegur. There 

 is evidence that the writer of these bulletins was a man of some importance 

 and no mere scribbler. In bulletin 25, page 463, he speaks of attending a 

 meeting at Versailles of twenty-five deputies of the third estate. No com- 

 mon reporter would have been at such a meeting. It is probable that these 

 bulletins were addressed to someone in the foreign department, possibly to 

 Rayneval. Brette has the following to say in regard to this : " Ces bulle- 

 tins journaliers dont nous commengons aujourd'hui la publication sont 

 ainsi decrits dans I'inventaire sommaire des affaires etrangeres : ' Annee 

 1789. Relation des evenements depuis le 20 mai jusqu'au 15 juillet envoyee 

 a M. de Puysegur ou a M. de Rayneval.' " 



"" Gouvernor Morris, in his Diary and Letters (I, 76), says in regard 

 to the applause for the queen : " After the speech is over the king rises to 

 depart, and receives a long and affecting ' Vive le roi.' The queen rises 

 and to my great satisfaction she hears for the first time in several months, 

 the sound of 'Vive la reinel' She makes a low courtesy and this pro- 

 duces a louder acclamation and this a lower courtesy." 



222 



