‘The high beneficed clergy are unrepresented; how can they be otherwise, when the great majority of the deputies are taken from amongst curés who have, as a general rule, no interest in defending our properties? You are too just not to be struck with the inconveniences which this general summons of our clergy to an assembly must drag down on us, and I venture to hope that in future I shall not be again subjected to the indignity of presiding over a tumultuous and disorderly rout, such as that at present assembled. My zeal for the public welfare, and my devotion to the Crown, have alone sustained me against the outrages I have endured, to the like of which I have never previously been subjected in my diocese.’ A few days after, the bishop received an answer from M. Necker, couched in these laconic terms:-- ‘Monseigneur, I grieve to hear of the schism in the assembly under your presidence. But who is to blame if the children revolt against their father? I have read somewhere the injunction, which you, my Lord, may also possibly have seen, “Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath.”’ On the 23rd, the _cahiers_, or memorials of complaints and recommendations, were completed, and on the 24th the election of deputies took place. In the hall of the Seminary the election of clerical delegates was the scene of the final struggle between the upper and lower clergy, and it was fought with greatest violence. On the preceding evening the bishops had concerted with those clergy on whom they thought they could rely, and had resolved to bring forward M. Parizot de Durand, incumbent of Breteuil, and M. de la Lande, curé of Illiers-l’Évêque. The former was a worthy priest, greatly beloved for his piety, exceedingly obstinate in his adhesion to the existing state of affairs, and utterly averse to change in any form. He had a favourite maxim, ‘quieta non movere,’ which he produced on every possible occasion, and which was, in fact, the law of his life. It was in vain for those who saw the agitation of mind, and the effervescence of popular feeling, to assure him that nothing was quiet; the stolid old Conservative was not to be shaken from his position, and maintained that this excitement was due to the moving of things hitherto quiet, and that the only cure for it was to reduce them to their former condition of stagnation. M. de la Lande was a man of family. He had been appointed in 1765 incumbent of the church of Nôtre-Dame in Illiers-l’Évêque; he was a pluralist, enjoying, in addition, the incumbency of S. Martin, the second parish in the barony. The collation to these two rich benefices belonged to the Bishop of Évreux, who was lord of Illiers, the barony having been made over to the see by Philip de Cahors in the thirteenth century. M. de la Lande was a courtier, and was often at Versailles. In his parish he was liked as an amiable, easy-going parson, fond of his bottle, and passionately addicted to the chase.