In Paris the streets were blocked by crowds standing before the bakers' shops; the passers-by stood discussing at the street corners, the tradesmen came out of their shops and gave and received the news before their doors; the agitators gathered together at the Palais-Royal: Camille Desmoulins began to distinguish himself in the throng[312].
I had scarcely alighted[313], together with Madame de Farcy and Madame Lucile, at a lodging-house in the Rue de Richelieu, when a riot broke out: the mob proceeded to the Abbaye to deliver some French Guards, who had been imprisoned by order of their officers. The non-commissioned officers of an artillery regiment quartered at the Invalides joined the people. The defection of the army was commencing.
The Court, alternately yielding and resisting, a mixture of obstinacy and weakness, of hectoring and fear, allowed itself to be bullied by Mirabeau[314], who demanded that the troops should be removed to a distance, and yet did not consent to remove them: it accepted the affront and did not remove the cause of it. In Paris a rumor spread that an army was arriving through the Montmartre sewer, that the dragoons were about to force the barriers. It was suggested to take up the street pavements, to carry the paving-stones to the top floors of the houses, in order to hurl them upon the tyrant's satellites: every one set to work. In the midst of this turmoil M. Necker was ordered to resign. The new ministry consisted of M. de Breteuil[315], La Galaizière, the Maréchal de Broglie[316], La Vauguyon, La Porte[317] and Foullon[318]. These replaced Messieurs de Montmorin[319], de La Luzerne[320], de Saint-Priest[321] and de Nivernais[322].
A Breton poet, newly landed, had asked me to take him to Versailles. There are people who will go to see gardens and fountains amid the downfall of empires: scribblers especially possess this faculty of isolating themselves in their hobby during the course of the greatest events; with them, their phrase or their strophe fills the place of everything.
I took my Pindar to the gallery at Versailles at mass-time. The Œil-de-Boeuf was radiant: M. Necker's dismissal had raised the spirits of all; they felt sure of victory: possibly Sanson[323] and Simon[324] were among the crowd, witnessing the delight of the Royal Family.
Marie Antoinette.
The Queen passed by with her two children; their fair hair appeared to be waiting for crowns: Madame la Duchesse d'Angoulême[325], aged eleven, drew all eyes through a virginal pride; beautiful through nobility of birth and maidenly innocence, she seemed to say, like Corneille's orange-blossom in the Guirlande de Julie:
J'ai la pompe de ma naissance[326].