What he spoke in his simple, good-natured, rather thick voice was, for those who heard it, enormous. His first words raised the issue directly, before men had well realized the shock--the royal authority was advising a reversal of all that had been done in the six days: “I thought, gentlemen, that I had done all in my power for the good of my subjects.... The States General” [not the _National Assembly_] “have been open now near two months, and they are not yet agreed upon the preliminaries of their business.... It is my duty, it is a duty which I owe to the common weal, and to my realm and to myself, to end these divisions.... I come to repress whatever has been attempted against the laws.” He sat down, and every phrase in the five minutes or so of the declaration drawn up for him had seemed to the Commons and their partizans a challenge. The king’s face, if witnesses may be trusted, showed some surprise. There is an air in assemblies which can be felt, though not defined, and the dense rows in black at the end of the hall were hostile. Barentin came up the steps of the throne and knelt, as custom demanded, then turned and said in a loud voice, “The king orders you to be covered.” Bailly put on his hat, sundry of his Commons followed his example. The privileged orders for some reason made no such gesture. In the passions of the moment it was thought that they deliberately insulted the third order, as though not caring for the privilege of remaining covered before the king, if the Commons were to share that privilege. At any rate, Bailly nervously uncovered again, and those who had first followed his example followed it once more. There was a little laughter, a little subdued challenging. They ceased as the articles of the king’s main declaration--Necker’s document--were read for him by his minister. There were twenty-five of them; each was short, and their delivery no great matter in time. But in effect they were capital. They maintained the separation of the three orders. They broke the unity of the National Assembly. They permitted common sessions only to debate questions which were common to all three. Louis spoke again for a moment. Next were read the thirty-five articles Necker meant for a “liberal” constitution to the nation.