distress of
Paris during that spring, and assigned it to its proper cause, together
with the patience with which the people bore it. The world of France was
in a state of hushed, of paralyzed expectancy, waiting for the States
General to assemble and for centuries of tyranny to end. And because of
this expectancy, industry had come to a standstill, the stream of trade
had dwindled to a trickle. Men would not buy or sell until they clearly
saw the means by which the genius of the Swiss banker, M. Necker, was to
deliver them from this morass. And because of this paralysis of affairs
the men of the people were thrown out of work and left to starve with
their wives and children.

Looking on, Andre-Louis smiled grimly. So far he was right. The
sufferers were ever the proletariat. The men who sought to make
this revolution, the electors--here in Paris as elsewhere--were men
of substance, notable bourgeois, wealthy traders. And whilst these,
despising the canaille, and envying the privileged, talked largely of
equality--by which they meant an ascending equality that should confuse
themselves with the gentry--the proletariat perished of want in its
kennels.

At last with the month of May the deputies arrived, Andre-Louis'
friend Le Chapelier prominent amongst them, and the States General were
inaugurated at Versailles. It was then that affairs began to become
interesting, then that Andre-Louis began seriously to doubt the
soundness of the views he had held hitherto.

When the royal proclamation had gone forth decreeing that the deputies
of the Third Estate should number twice as many as those of the other
two orders together, Andre-Louis had believed that the preponderance of
votes thus assured to the Third Estate rendered inevitable the reforms
to which they had pledged themselves.

But he had reckoned without the power of the privileged orders over
the proud Austrian queen, and her power over the obese, phlegmatic,
irresolute monarch. That the privileged orders should deliver battle
in defence of their privileges, Andre-Louis could understand. Man being
what he is, and labouring under his curse of acquisitiveness, will never
willingly surrender possessions, whether they be justly or unjustly
held. But what surprised Andre-Louis was the unutterable crassness of
the methods by which the Privileged ranged themselves for battle. They
opposed brute force to reason and philosophy, and battalions of foreign
mercenaries to idea