on of the Third Estate was a
paper-maker of the name of Reveillon, a man eminent for his charity and
general liberality, but one who was believed to regard the views of the
extreme reformers with disfavor. He was so popular with his own workmen,
who were very numerous, and with their friends, who knew his character
from them, that he was generally expected to succeed. The opposite party,
who had candidates of their own, and had the support of the purse of the
Duc d'Orleans, were determined that he should not; and no way seemed so
sure as to murder him. Bands of ferocious-looking ruffians were brought in
from the country districts, armed with heavy bludgeons, and, as was
afterward learned, well supplied with money; and on the morning of the
28th of April news was brought to the Baron de Besenval, the commander of
the Royal Guards, that a mob of several thousand men had collected in the
streets, who had read a mock sentence, professing to have been passed by
the Third Estate, which condemned Reveillon to be hanged, after which they
had burned him in effigy, and then attacked his house, which they were
sacking and destroying. They even ventured to attack the first company of
soldiers whom De Besenval sent to the rescue; and it was not till he
dispatched a battalion with a couple of field-pieces to the spot that the
plunderers were expelled from the house and the riot was quelled. Nearly
five hundred of the mob were killed, but when the Parliament proceeded to
set on foot a judicial inquiry into the cause of the tumult, Necker
prevailed on the secretary of state to suppress the investigation, as he
feared to exasperate D'Orleans further by giving publicity to his
machinations, which he did not yet suspect either the extent or the
object.[2]

A momentary tranquility was, however, restored at Paris; and all eyes were
turned from the capital to Versailles, where the first few days of May
were devoted to the receptions of the States-general by the king and
queen, ceremonies which might have had a good effect, since the bitterest
adversaries of the court were favorably impressed by the grace and
affability of the queen; but which many shrewd judges afterward believed
to have had a contrary influence, from the offense taken by the
representatives of the Commons at some of the details of the ancient
etiquette, which on so solemn an occasion was revived in all its stately
strictness. The dignitaries of the Church wore their most sum