ocracy.

Nearly all the cahiers of the Third Estate and many of those of the
noblesse, had demanded this measure, and the Third Estate on assembling
to verify the mandates of its members immediately called on the other
two orders to join it in this proceeding. The struggle over this point
continued from the 5th of May to the 9th of June, before any decisive
step was taken. But as the days went by, apparently in fruitless
debate, there was in reality a constant displacement of influence going
on in favor of the Third Estate. In the opening session the statement
of affairs made by Necker had left a very poor impression. Since then
the ministers had done nothing, save to attempt, by a feeble
intervention, to keep the orders apart. And all the time the Third
Estate was gradually becoming conscious of its own strength and of the
feebleness {55} of the adversary. And so at last, on the 10th of June,
Sieyes moved, Mirabeau supporting, that the noblesse and the clergy
should be formally summoned to join the Tiers, and that on the 12th,
verification of powers for the whole of the States-General should take
place.

Accordingly on the 12th, under the presidency of the astronomer Bailly,
senior representative of the city of Paris, the Tiers began the
verification of the deputies' mandates. On the 13th, three members of
the clergy, three country priests, asked admission. They were received
amid scenes of the greatest enthusiasm, and within a few days their
example proved widely contagious. On the 14th, a new step was taken,
and the deputies, belonging now to a body that was clearly no longer
the Tiers Etat, voted themselves a _National Assembly_. This was, in a
sense, accomplishing the Revolution.

So rapidly did the Tiers now draw the other parts of the Assembly to
itself that on the 19th, the Clergy formally voted for reunion. This
brought the growing uneasiness and alarm of the Court to a head.
Necker's influence was now on the wane. The King's youngest brother,
the Comte d'Artois, at this moment on good terms with the Queen, and
Marie {56} Antoinette herself, were for putting an end to the mischief
before it went further, and they prevailed. It was decided that the
King should intervene, and should break up the States-General into its
component parts once more by an exercise of the royal authority.

On the morning of the 20th of June, in a driving rain, the deputies
arriving at their hall found the doors closed