France -- History -- Louis XVI, 1774-1793; France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799
Experienced Mounier, not wholly new to such things, in
Parlementary revolts, which he has seen or heard of, thinks that
it were well, in these lamentable threatening circumstances, to
unite themselves by an Oath.—Universal acclamation, as from
smouldering bosoms getting vent! The Oath is redacted; pronounced
aloud by President Bailly,—and indeed in such a sonorous tone,
that the cloud of witnesses, even outdoors, hear it, and bellow
response to it. Six hundred right-hands rise with President
Bailly’s, to take God above to witness that they will not
separate for man below, but will meet in all places, under all
circumstances, wheresoever two or three can get together, till
they have made the Constitution. Made the Constitution, Friends!
That is a long task. Six hundred hands, meanwhile, will sign as
they have sworn: six hundred save one; one Loyalist Abdiel, still
visible by this sole light-point, and nameable, poor “M. Martin
d’Auch, from Castelnaudary, in Languedoc.” Him they permit to
sign or signify refusal; they even save him from the cloud of
witnesses, by declaring “his head deranged.” At four o’clock, the
signatures are all appended; new meeting is fixed for Monday
morning, earlier than the hour of the Royal Session; that our
Hundred and Forty-nine Clerical deserters be not balked: we shall
meet “at the Recollets Church or elsewhere,” in hope that our
Hundred and Forty-nine will join us;—and now it is time to go to
dinner.
This, then, is the Session of the Tennis-Court, famed _Séance du
Jeu de Paume;_ the fame of which has gone forth to all lands.
This is Mercurius de Brézé’s appearance as _Deus ex machinâ;_
this is the fruit it brings! The giggle of Courtiers in the
Versailles Avenue has already died into gaunt silence. Did the
distracted Court, with Gardes-des-Sceaux Barentin, Triumvirate
and Company, imagine that they could scatter six hundred National
Deputies, big with a National Constitution, like as much barndoor
poultry, big with next to nothing,—by the white or black rod of a
Supreme Usher? Barndoor poultry fly cackling: but National
Deputies turn round, lion-faced; and, with uplifted right-hand,
swear an Oath that makes the four corners of France tremble.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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