reinstated
Parlement (as at Besancon), which stands astonished at this Behemoth of
a States-General it had itself evoked, starts forward, with more or
less audacity, to fix a thorn in its nose; and, alas, is instantaneously
struck down, and hurled quite out,--for the new popular force can use
not only arguments but brickbats! Or else, and perhaps combined with
this, it is an order of Noblesse (as in Brittany), which will beforehand
tie up the Third Estate, that it harm not the old privileges. In which
act of tying up, never so skilfully set about, there is likewise no
possibility of prospering; but the Behemoth-Briareus snaps your cords
like green rushes. Tie up? Alas, Messieurs! And then, as for your
chivalry rapiers, valour and wager-of-battle, think one moment, how can
that answer? The plebeian heart too has red life in it, which changes
not to paleness at glance even of you; and 'the six hundred Breton
gentlemen assembled in arms, for seventy-two hours, in the Cordeliers'
Cloister, at Rennes,'--have to come out again, wiser than they entered.
For the Nantes Youth, the Angers Youth, all Brittany was astir;
'mothers, sisters and sweethearts' shrieking after them, March! The
Breton Noblesse must even let the mad world have its way. (Hist. Parl.
i. 287. Deux Amis de la Liberte, i. 105-128.)

In other Provinces, the Noblesse, with equal goodwill, finds it better
to stick to Protests, to well-redacted 'Cahiers of grievances,' and
satirical writings and speeches. Such is partially their course in
Provence; whither indeed Gabriel Honore Riquetti Comte de Mirabeau has
rushed down from Paris, to speak a word in season. In Provence, the
Privileged, backed by their Aix Parlement, discover that such novelties,
enjoined though they be by Royal Edict, tend to National detriment;
and what is still more indisputable, 'to impair the dignity of the
Noblesse.' Whereupon Mirabeau protesting aloud, this same Noblesse, amid
huge tumult within doors and without, flatly determines to expel him
from their Assembly. No other method, not even that of successive duels,
would answer with him, the obstreperous fierce-glaring man. Expelled he
accordingly is.

'In all countries, in all times,' exclaims he departing, 'the
Aristocrats have implacably pursued every friend of the People; and
with tenfold implacability, if such a one were himself born of the
Aristocracy. It was thus that the last of the Gracchi perished, by the
hands of the Patrician