e bayonet," the pitiful king then yielding to this defiance,
even begging the nobles and deputies of the clergy to join the National
Assembly--a revolutionary assembly, which was holding its meetings in
his own Palace of Versailles, and which was every day gravitating from
its original lofty purpose; its rallying cry for justice and reform of
abuses changing to "Down with the Aristocrats!" It was becoming
alarming, so Louis ordered the body to disperse; and when soldiers
stood at the door to prevent its assembling, it took possession of the
queen's tennis court, and there each member took a solemn oath not to
dissolve until the object they sought had been secured.

There were some among the clergy and the nobles who realized the
necessity for reforms, and who would gladly have joined a movement
inaugurated in a different spirit. Hence, partly from alarm, and
partly impelled by other reasons and purposes, more or less pure, there
was finally a secession from the two aristocratic bodies; the Duke of
Orleans, cousin of the king, leading the movement in one, and three
archbishops in the other. These, with their followers, appeared among
the _Tiers Etat_ as converts to the popular cause, the Marquis de
Lafayette, hero of the late American War, sitting next to Mirabeau, the
powerful and eloquent leader of the whole movement in its first days.

Concerning the genius of Mirabeau there is no difference of opinion.
All are agreed that intellectually he towered far above every one about
him. But whether he was the incarnation of good or of evil, the world
is still in doubt;-and also whether he could have guided the forces he
had invoked, if a premature death had not swept him off from the scene,
leaving Robespierre, a man concerning whom there is no disagreement of
opinion, to guide the storm.

Paris was becoming wild with excitement. Clubs and associations were
in every quarter, and detachments of a Parisian mob marched and sang at
night, firing the hearts of the rabble. But it was the Palais Royal,
the home of the Duke of Orleans, that friend of the people, which was
the heart of the whole movement. There, patriots and lovers of France,
their hearts aflame with noble aspiration for their country, met with
schemers without heart, more or less wicked, the Camille Desmoulins and
the Marats all fused into one body under the leadership of the Duke of
Orleans, cousin of the king, who, rising superior to aristocratic
tradition