ailly did not succeed in extorting any indulgences from
Madame de Crequi, when, fortunately, the arrival of another visitor put
an end to this insupportable torture.

Two years after this, Bailly having become the first personage in the
city, some booksellers collected all his opuscula and published them.
This time, the Marchioness, who had lost all recollection of the scene
that I have been describing, overpowered the Mayor of Paris with
compliments and felicitations on account of this same eulogy, which she
had before treated with such inhuman rigour.

Such a contrast excited the mirth of the author. Still, might I dare to
say so, Madame de Crequi was, perhaps, sincere on both occasions; had
the exaggerations of praise and of criticism been put aside, it would
not have been impossible to defend both opinions. The early pages of
the pamphlet might appear embarrassed and obscure, whilst in the rest
there might be found great refinement, elegance, and appreciations full
of taste.

ASSEMBLY OF THE NOTABLES.--BAILLY IS NAMED FIRST DEPUTY OF PARIS; AND
SOON AFTER DEAN OR SENIOR OF THE DEPUTIES OF THE COMMUNES.

The Assembly of the Notables had no other effect than to show in a
stronger light the disorder of the finances, and the other wounds that
were galling France. It was then that the Parliament of Paris asked for
the convocation of the States General. This demand was unfavourably
received by Cardinal de Brienne. Soon afterwards the convocation became
a necessity, and Necker, now in the ministry, announced, in the month of
November, 1788, that it was decreed in Council, and that the king had
even granted to the third estate a double representation, which had been
so imprudently disputed by the courtiers.

The districts were formed, on the king's convocation, the 21st of April,
1789. That day was the first day of Bailly's political life. It was on
the 21st of April that the Citizen of Chaillot, entering the Hall of the
_Feuillants_, imagined, he said, that "he breathed a new atmosphere,"
and regarded "as a phenomenon that he should have become something in
the body-politic, merely from his being a citizen."

The elections were to be made in two gradations. Bailly was named first
elector of his district. A few days after, at the general meeting, the
Assembly called him to the Board in quality of secretary. Thus it was
our fellow-academician who, in the beginning, drew up the celebrated
_proces-verbal_ of the me