modifications, and it was determined by a majority of eleven members, that their body should join the Tiers.  These proceedings of the Clergy were unknown to the Council at Marly, and those of the Council were kept secret from every body.  The next morning (the 20th), the members repaired to the House as usual, found the doors shut and guarded, and a proclamation posted up for holding a seance royale on the 22nd, and a suspension of their meetings till then.  They presumed, in the first moment, that their dissolution was decided, and repaired to another place, where they proceeded to business.  They there bound themselves to each other by an oath, never to separate of their own accord, till they had settled a constitution for the nation on a solid basis, and if separated by force, that they would re-assemble in some other place.  It was intimated to them, however, that day, privately, that the proceedings of the seance royale would be favorable to them.  The next day they met in a church, and were joined by a majority of the Clergy.  The heads of the aristocracy saw that all was lost without some violent exertion.  The King was still at Marly.  Nobody was permitted to approach him but their friends.  He was assailed by lies in all shapes.  He was made to believe that the Commons were going to absolve the army from their oath of fidelity to him, and to raise their pay.

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They procured a committee to be held, consisting of the King and his ministers, to which Monsieur and the Count d’Artois should be admitted.  At this committee, the latter attacked Mr. Necker personally, arraigned his plans, and proposed one which some of his engines had put into his hands.  Mr. Necker, whose characteristic is the want of firmness, was browbeaten and intimidated, and the King shaken.  He determined that the two plans should be deliberated on the next day, and the seance royale put off a day longer.  This encouraged a fiercer attack on Mr. Necker the next day; his plan was totally dislocated, and that of the Count d’Artois inserted into it.  Himself and Monsieur de Montmorin offered their resignation, which was refused; the Count d’Artois saying to Mr. Necker, ’No, Sir, you must be kept as the hostage; we hold you responsible for all the ill which shall happen.’  This change of plan was immediately whispered without doors.  The nobility were in triumph, the people in consternation.  When the King passed, the next day, through the lane they formed from the Chateau to the Hotel des Etats (about half a mile), there was a dead silence.  He was about an hour in the House, delivering his speech and declaration, copies of which I enclose you.  On his coming out, a feeble cry of ‘Vive le Roy’ was raised by some children, but the people remained silent and sullen.  When the Duke d’Orleans followed, however, their applauses were excessive.  This must have been sensible to the King.  He had ordered, in the close of his speech, that the