54 Mae Darling 



nobles, set forth in their decrees of May 6 and ii, made the 

 decision of May 12, by which they agreed to name concihatory 

 commissioners, simply matter for ridicule.^*^ Mirabeau, in his 

 Lettres, treated the situation with that keen sarcasm which he 

 knew how to use so effectively. " The nobles," he asked, " are 

 they not everything in France ? What is a corporation of twenty- 

 four millions of individuals? Does it deserve to count for any- 

 thing? I do not know what our political writers are thinking 

 of when they tell us that this is the nation, as if the nobles were 

 not the nation par excellence. If they wish to admit as a third 

 party the twenty-four millions of individuals not noble, it is, on 

 their part, a generous sacrifice, purely voluntary and which no 

 person has the right to demand."^*" 



Duquesnoy, writing on May 11, announced that the nobility 

 had declared itself constituted, and added, " It is evident that the 

 moment of the crisis approaches.''^*' In speaking of the nobles 

 in the assembly of the third estate on May 13, he mentioned the 

 haughtiness of the Due de Praslin as he read the decrees, and 

 added that those who had, up to that time, been the most 

 moderate, were very much displeased with the resolutions of the 

 nobles."* Duquesnoy suggested that it would have been more 

 natural to appoint commissioners before voting that the cre- 

 dentials were legally verified. He pointed out how the hopes of 

 the third estate had been destroyed since the opening of the 

 states general, and he remarked that a " hundred nobles have been 

 heard to say that they would shed the last drop of their blood 

 rather than yield " in regard to the verification of credentials. 

 " The cool and moderate spirits," he wrote, " thought it would 

 be possible for the third estate to adopt a conciliatory attitude 

 . . . but the nobility threw the gauntlet into the arena and it is 

 necessary to pick it up." He predicted " that if the estates re- 

 mained in session until the end of the month, the third estate 

 would by that time have declared itself the nation." He added 



^^^ Recit des seances des deputes des communes, 17. 

 "^^^ Lettres du Comte de Mirabeau, No. 3, 3- 

 1*" Duquesnoy, I, 14. 

 i*s Duquesnoy, I, 17, 18. 



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