e, to hold Royal Session and have Edicts registered.
What a change, since Louis XIV. entered here, in boots; and, whip in
hand, ordered his registering to be done,--with an Olympian look which
none durst gainsay; and did, without stratagem, in such unceremonious
fashion, hunt as well as register! (Dulaure, vi. 306.) For Louis XVI.,
on this day, the Registering will be enough; if indeed he and the day
suffice for it.

Meanwhile, with fit ceremonial words, the purpose of the royal breast
is signified:--Two Edicts, for Protestant Emancipation, for Successive
Loan: of both which Edicts our trusty Garde-des-Sceaux Lamoignon will
explain the purport; on both which a trusty Parlement is requested to
deliver its opinion, each member having free privilege of speech. And
so, Lamoignon too having perorated not amiss, and wound up with that
Promise of States-General,--the Sphere-music of Parlementary eloquence
begins. Explosive, responsive, sphere answering sphere, it waxes louder
and louder. The Peers sit attentive; of diverse sentiment: unfriendly to
States-General; unfriendly to Despotism, which cannot reward merit, and
is suppressing places. But what agitates his Highness d'Orleans? The
rubicund moon-head goes wagging; darker beams the copper visage, like
unscoured copper; in the glazed eye is disquietude; he rolls uneasy in
his seat, as if he meant something. Amid unutterable satiety, has sudden
new appetite, for new forbidden fruit, been vouchsafed him? Disgust
and edacity; laziness that cannot rest; futile ambition, revenge,
non-admiralship:--O, within that carbuncled skin what a confusion of
confusions sits bottled!

'Eight Couriers,' in course of the day, gallop from Versailles, where
Lomenie waits palpitating; and gallop back again, not with the best
news. In the outer Courts of the Palais, huge buzz of expectation
reigns; it is whispered the Chief Minister has lost six votes overnight.
And from within, resounds nothing but forensic eloquence, pathetic and
even indignant; heartrending appeals to the royal clemency, that his
Majesty would please to summon States-General forthwith, and be the
Saviour of France:--wherein dusky-glowing D'Espremenil, but still more
Sabatier de Cabre, and Freteau, since named Commere Freteau (Goody
Freteau), are among the loudest. For six mortal hours it lasts, in this
manner; the infinite hubbub unslackened.

And so now, when brown dusk is falling through the windows, and no end
visible, hi