No sooner had the warrant appeared (which can be translated in these words:—“All will assemble to elect; all will write their grievances in the books given to them for that purpose”) than all France thrilled, as it were, with an electric shock, and the people leapt from darkness into light. That cry, treasured up for two centuries, becomes stronger and stronger every day. They complain that the year 1788 was barren; that the winter was bitterly cold; that the famine in the following spring was terrible. They went to the municipality of St. Menehould, to write in the books; and my capital penmanship procured me the office of secretary. Afterwards, they went to election. MM. Drouet, Guillaume, and Billaud exercised enormous influence. M. Dampierre was balloted with a poor parish priest. The priest prevailed over him. The event deceived all. The Etats, which ought to have opened on the 27th of April, were adjourned to the 4th of May. The Court was frightened, and delayed the matter as long as it could. All France had its eyes turned to Paris. Every hour brought forth unexpected events. On the 5th of May, the opening of the Etats, in the procession from Versailles, the King was applauded, and the Queen hissed. On the 8th of May, the three classes were changed into two—the one formed of the third class, the other of the nobility and clergy. On the 18th of June, the assembly hall was closed by order of the King. On the 22nd of June, the oath of Jeu-de-Pauvre was taken. This oath was the declaration of war from the third Etat against the nobility and clergy. It was the first menace direct from the people against the throne. All in a moment, these comparatively small events ceased, and a portentous calm intervened, so to speak, as if the minor combatants held their weapons to intently watch the issue of the combat between their superiors. On the 12th of July, M. Drouet started for Paris. It was the day of the dismissal of Necker—it was the day when Camille Desmoulins, jumping on a table in a _café_, drew his sword, and crying, “To arms!” placed the leaf of a tree in his hat. We had no news of M. Drouet up to the 15th. On the morning of the 15th, MM. Dampierre and De Valmy went out hunting, to which sport were invited two or three of their friends from Clermont and Varennes; among others, a certain Chevalier de Courtemont, whom we shall come across later on. It was evident that the hunt was but a secondary affair, and that the real object was to meet and hear the news from Paris. M. Dampierre had heard, on the 13th, that Paris was on fire, and the Court at Versailles guarded by German troops,—Benzenval commanding, under the old Marshal de Broglie. The theatres were shut. The dismissal of Necker had, to a certain extent, paralyzed the public mind. Statues of him and of the Duke of Orleans were covered with crape, and paraded through the streets of Paris.