“‘However, other more serious events coming, meanwhile, to occupy my attention, I lost sight of my old friend, or if ever I _did_ think of him, it was with a faint terror, lest, never having heard of him since my visit to Rambouillet, he might have been reported to the bishop of his diocese, and have incurred imprisonment and disgrace for his imprudent practices. The great encounter between the people and their rulers had commenced, and all France was summoned to assist at the first parley, before hostilities began—the assembling of the _états généraux_ at Versailles. “‘I arrived at Versailles the day before the procession from the Palace to St. Louis, and was walking arm and arm with Sièyes upon the _tapis vert_, gazing with curiosity on the scene. The day was heavenly, (it sometimes seems to me as though we have no such weather now, as we had then,) the _tapis vert_ was crowded—courtiers in their court costume—officers in uniform—the _haut clergé_ attired with the brilliant tokens of the rank each held in the Church—were all gathered in groups, either sauntering beneath the shade of the _charmille_ hedge, where the first tender buds of May were just sufficient to screen the promenaders from the rays of the spring-tide sun—or else seated on the stone benches along the alleys, conversing with the ladies, who, all adorned in the gayest colours, and wearing the brightest smiles, seemed bent on rendering the holiday as brilliant as it was possible it could be. “‘On the other side, (the truth _may_ be told now without mischief,) avoided by the rest, as though they bore the seeds of pestilence within them, the members of the _tiers état_ conversed in busy, whispering knots; no merry laughter was heard from _them_, no pleasant trifling or mirthful jesting was seen lighting up _their_ discourse. All was dark and gloomy, care sat on every brow, and that their converse was of weighty matters, was evident, by the tone of mystery in which it was carried on, and the sudden silence which took place among them whenever any stray member of the _noblesse_ happened to pass by to join the glittering throng on the other side. Their very costume contrasted strongly with that of their contemptuous superiors; they all wore, and contrary to anticipation, were _proud_ to wear the dress to which they had been condemned—the black hose and surtout, and short black cloak, which, by the antique sumptuary law, denoted the vile, base-born _roturier_.