heorists, then of demagogues, and lastly of soldiers.

What has just been said does not imply that the action of the National
Assembly on the night of the 4th of August was altogether admirable.
The example of the nobles was infectious. A consuming fervour of
self-sacrifice seized every member of the house. Archbishops, bishops
and abbots rushed to the tribune and offered all they could. Tithes,
pluralities, and every sort of ecclesiastical privilege were
sacrificed. The unprivileged class attempted desperately, but in vain,
to hold its own in the contest, and could find nothing more to
surrender than some of the special privileges and franchises attached
to certain provinces and cities of the kingdom.

Now all this was generous and admirable,--it forms one of the most
generous and admirable pages in history. It was even more. It was the
emphatic and right declaration that privilege and class distinction was
the root of all the evils of the old system and had been {80} condemned
by the French nation. But it had none of the qualities of practical
statesmanship. It did not tend to decrease disorder but the contrary;
and for the moment, with reform advancing so prosperously, order was
the first consideration. The effects of the decrees were disastrous
and intensified the bad conditions of the country. The woodlands were
immediately invaded by armies of timber and fuel cutters. Game was
killed off. The poor country priest found his salary gone. The
_gabelle_ itself was disregarded. Local justice came to an end. And
so the Government, with all its extra load, found the already failing
revenue almost entirely cut off. The peasants and people of France
interpreted the decrees after their fashion, refused to pay taxes and
abused the surrendered privileges.

Through August and September the assembly continued its constitutional
debates, one of the three actors in this great political tragedy; the
other two, Paris and King Louis, watched its proceedings with growing
impatience. Uneasy at the increasing unrest of the capital, at the now
popular cry that the King ought to reside in Paris, and at the
constitutional demands which the assembly was gradually formulating and
accumulating, Louis decided to bring {81} some troops into Versailles
for his protection, this duty being assigned to the regiment of
Flanders. This was a small enough matter when compared with the
formidable preparations of de Broglie and Besenv