opening of States General of lySg 65 



when Louis XIV drove out the Protestants, the nation did not 

 cease to exist. There were more Protestants than there are now 

 of the privileged [classes] ; the nation is able, therefore, to exist 

 without them [the privileged classes], and without doubt they 

 are indeed the ones who are protesting against the rights of 

 nature and of justice. "^^^ 



Another quotation which shows the attitude of the radical 

 party, especially towards the nobility, runs as follows: " Of what 

 use are the conferences? Does anyone believe that the nobility 

 will yield to reason, and is it not plain that they have some other 

 aim besides the abolition of their privileges? "^^^ Duquesnoy 

 expressed the opinion that the majority would favor the con- 

 ferences, but added that he had no doubt but that before the end 

 of the month the third estate would declare that it, and it alone, 

 was the nation. " That fatal declaration made," he wrote, " what 

 will be the outcome? For whom will the king declare himself? 

 If it is for the third estate, the nobility is destroyed; if it is for 

 the nobility, the third estate will submit in Bretagne, in Provence, 

 in Comte, in Dauphine, etc., only after blood has been shed."^^*^ 

 Farther on, in his account of the day's proceedings, Duquesnoy 

 tells of one of the Bretons making this statement : " We have re- 

 mained asleep until today ; but it is the sleep of a lion which 

 awakes more terrible to rush on its prey."^**^ Duquesnoy closes 

 his account by saying : " I see only one remedy ; it is that the 

 king may find in the elections some causes which will allow him 

 to suspend the estates for some time."^°- 



It is evident that afifairs had reached a critical stage in the 

 third estate and that a rash step might easily result in serious 

 trouble. Much depended on what action should be taken on the 

 questions before the assembly. The two motions were taken up 

 again on May 15. ]\Iirabeau seems to have 'been the principal 



188 Ibid. 



189 Ibid. 



190 Duquesnoy, I, 21. 



191 Ibid., 21, 22. Duquesnoy does not say that this remark was made in 

 the assembly. 



192 Ibid., 22. 



267 



