[Footnote 55: "And so Necker, Atlas-like, sustains the burden of the finances for five years long. Without wages--for he refused such--cheered only by public opinion and the ministering of his noble wife. He, too, has to produce his scheme of taxing; clergy, noblesse to be taxed--like a mere Turgot. Let Necker also depart; not unlamented."--_Carlyle, French Revolution_, vol. i., p. 46.] [Footnote 56: M. Rabaud de St. Etienne, vol. i., p. 22.] [Footnote 57: Memoirs of the Reign of Louis XVI., by the Abbé Soulavie, vol. ii., p. 191.] CHAPTER VII. THE ASSEMBLY OF THE NOTABLES. Measures of Brienne.--The Bed of Justice.--Remonstrance of Parliament.--Parliament Exiled.--Submission of Parliament.--Duke of Orleans.--Treasonable Plans of the Duke of Orleans.--Anxiety of the Queen.--The Diamond Necklace.--Monsieur, the King's Brother.--Bagatelle.--Desperation of Brienne.--Edict for abolishing the Parliaments.--Energy of the Court.--Arrest of D'Espréménil and Goislard.--Tumults in Grenoble.--Terrific Hail-storm. The Notables, one hundred and forty-four in number, nearly all ecclesiastics, nobles, or ennobled, met at Versailles, Jan. 29, 1787. Calonne expected that this body, carefully selected by the king, would advise that all orders should make common cause and bear impartially the burden of taxation. Sustained by the moral power of this advice he hoped that the measure could be carried into execution. He presented his statement of affairs. Though he endeavored to conceal the worst, the Notables were appalled. Three hundred and fifty millions of dollars had been borrowed within a few years, and the annual deficit was thirty-five millions of dollars.[58] Cautiously he proposed his plan of impartial taxation. It was the signal for a general assault upon the doomed minister. He was literally hooted down. Not only the Assembly of Notables, but the clergy, the Parliament, the nobles all over the realm pounced upon him, led even by the queen and the Archbishop of Paris; and Calonne, without a friend, was compelled to resign his office and to fly from France.[59] The clergy were exceedingly exasperated against Calonne, for they deemed the proposition to tax the possessions of the Church as sacrilegious. The most active of the opponents of Calonne was Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse. He was a bold, resolute, ambitious man, and by the influence of the queen was appointed to succeed Calonne. "As public credit was dead," said a wag, "an archbishop was summoned to bury the remains."[60] The spirit of discontent and of menace was now becoming every day more extended and alarming, and the Revolution was gaining strength.