is grave
moment, renounce any kingly prerogative. "When the king is at the
Parliament, there is no deliberation; his will makes law," said the legal
rule and the custom of the magistracy. Lamoignon went up to the throne;
he said a few words in a low voice. "Mr. Keeper of the seals, have the
edicts enregistered," said Louis XVI. The minister immediately repeated
the formula used at beds of justice. A murmur ran through the assembly;
the Duke of Orleans rose; he had recently become the head of his house
through his father's death, and found himself more than ever involved in
intrigues hostile to the court. "Sir," said he in a broken voice, "this
registration appears to me illegal. . . . It should be distinctly
stated that the registration is done by the express command of your
Majesty." The king was as much moved as the prince. "It is all the same
to me," he replied. "You are master, of course." "Yes,--it is legal,
because I so will." The edict relative to non-Catholics was read, and
Louis XVI. withdrew.

There was violent commotion in the assembly; the protest of the Duke of
Orleans was drawn up in a more explicit form. "The difference between a
bed of justice and a royal session is, that one exhibits the frankness of
despotism and the other its duplicity," cried d'Espremesnil.
Notwithstanding the efforts of M. de Malesherbes and the Duke of
Nivernais, the Parliament inscribed on the registers that it was not to
be understood to take any part in the transcription here ordered of
gradual and progressive loans for the years 1788, 1789, 1790, 1791, and
1792. In reply, the Duke of Orleans was banished to Villers-Cotterets,
whilst Councillors Freteau and Sabatier were arrested and taken to a
state-prison.

By the scandalousness of his life, as well as by his obstructive
buildings in the Palais-Royal, the Duke of Orleans had lost favor with
the public; his protest and his banishment restored him at once to his
popularity. The Parliament piled remonstrance upon remonstrance, every
day more and more haughty in form as well as in substance. Dipping into
the archives in search of antiquated laws, the magistrates appealed to
the liberties of olden France, mingling therewith the novel principles of
the modern philosophy. "Several pretty well-known facts," they said,
"prove that the nation, more enlightened as to its true interests, even
in the least elevated classes, is disposed to accept from the hands of
your