He said that the soldiers were there to preserve tranquillity, and not to intimidate the Assembly, and that if the army caused alarm, he was ready to transfer the States to Soisson or Noyon. With this answer the Assembly was forced to remain content, unsatisfactory as it seemed. The plans of the queen, the Count d'Artois, the Princes of Condé and Conti, and the Dukes of Polignac and d'Enghien, were now complete. The capital and Versailles were invested, and at a signal the army would fall upon them, and trample under foot all opposition. The last blow had to be struck, and Marie Antoinette was the person to strike it. It was to fall on Necker, the prime minister, whom the Court party detested, and whom it could never forgive for having persuaded the king to summon the States-General, and thus to imperil their supremacy over king and country. On Saturday evening, July 11th, Lindet was walking with the Abbé Grégoire along the Paris road, beyond the barrier at the end of the Avenue. 'What will happen next?' asked the Curé of Bernay. 'It appears evident that the queen intends a _coup d'état_, but what it will be no one knows exactly.' 'The time for a _coup d'état_ is passed,' said Grégoire; 'on the twenty-third of last month the decisive blow was struck, and it was struck by the Assembly. Consider, my friend, what can the Court do now? The Assembly represents twenty-five millions of men, the court represents a few thousands. The prestige of royalty burst like a bubble on that day in May. The king is the head of a party, a little miserable party, ranged against the vast bulk of the French people.' 'You forget the army,' said Lindet; 'the court can always summon to its aid brute force to crush right and reason, as it has crushed it for centuries with the same means.' 'I question whether it can now rely implicitly on the army. Remember, the army reflects the condition of France; it has its officers and its privates; the former, the privileged, all nobles; and for the rest, the army is a _cul-de-sac_, there is no possibility of advance, of promotion. And as we groan under feudalism, so does the soldier cry out under the oppression of his officers, who have cheated him of his pay, have cut short his rations, have bullied and insulted him. If the commoners rise against the nobles, and the curés against the bishops, depend upon it the privates will rebel against their officers. We curés have joined cause with the commons, the soldiers will make common cause with us. And then, where are the privileged with the crown, whose cause they defend?' 'And what do you suppose will be the end?'