e
council declared all the parliarnents prorogued until the formation of
the great bailliecourts. The plenary court was to assemble forthwith at
Versailles. It only sat once; in presence of the opposition amongst the
majority of the men summoned to compose it, the ministers, unforeseeing
and fickle even with all their ability and their boldness, found
themselves obliged to adjourn the sittings indefinitely. All the members
of the Parliament of Paris had bound themselves by a solemn oath not to
take a place in any other assembly. "In case of dispersal of the
magistracy," said the resolution entered upon the registers of the court,
"the Parliament places the present act as a deposit in the hands of the
king, of his august family, of the peers of the realm, of the States-
general, and of each of the orders, united or separate, representing the
nation."

At sight of this limitation, less absolute and less cleverly calculated,
of the attempts made by Chancellor Maupeou, after seventeen years' rapid
marching towards a state of things so novel and unheard of, the commotion
was great in Paris; the disturbance, however, did not reach to the
masses, and the disorder in the streets was owing less to the Parisian
populace than to mendicants, rascals of sinister mien, flocking in, none
knew why, from the four points of the compass. The provinces were more
seriously disturbed. All the sovereign courts rose up with one accord;
the Parliament of Rouen declared "traitors to the king, to the nation, to
the province, perjured and branded with infamy, all officers and judges"
who should proceed in virtue of the ordinances of May 8. "The authority
of the king is unlimited for doing good to his subjects," said one of the
presidents, "but everybody should put limits to it when it turns towards
oppression." It was the very commandant of the royal troops whom the
magistrates thus reproached with their passive obedience.

Normandy confined herself to declarations and speeches; other provinces
went beyond those bounds: Brittany claimed performance "of the marriage
contract between Louis XII. and the Duchess Anne." Notwithstanding the
king's prohibition, the Parliament met at Rennes. A detachment of
soldiers having been ordered to disperse the magistrates, a band of
gentlemen, supported by an armed mob, went to protect the deliberations
of the court. Fifteen officers fought duels with fifteen gentlemen. The
court issued a decree of ar