rest against the holders of the king's
commission. The youth of Nantes hurried to the aid of the youth of
Rennes. The intermediary commission of the states ordered the bishops to
have the prayers said which were customary in times of public calamity,
and a hundred and thirty gentlemen carried to the governor a declaration
signed by the noblesse of almost the whole province. "We, members of the
noblesse of Brittany, do declare infamous those who may accept any place,
whether in the new administration of justice or in the administration of
the states, which is not recognized by the laws and constitutions of the
province." A dozen of them set off for Versailles to go and denounce the
ministers to Louis XVI. Being put in the Bastille, eighteen of their
friends went to demand then back; they were followed by fifty others.
The officers of the Bassigny regiment had taken sides with the
opposition, and discussed the orders sent to them. Among the great lords
of the province, attached to the king's own person, MM. de La Tremoille,
de Rieux, and de Guichen left the court to join their protests to those
of their friends; the superintendent, Bertrand de Molleville, was hanged-
in effigy and had to fly.

In Bearn, the peasantry had descended from the mountains; hereditary
proprietors of their little holdings, they joined the noblesse to march
out and meet the Duke of Guiche, sent by the king to restore order.
Already the commandant of the province had been obliged to authorize the
meeting of the Parliament. The Bearnese bore in front of their ranks the
cradle of Henry IV., carefully preserved in the Castle of Pau. "We are
no rebels," they said: "we claim our contract and fidelity to the oaths
of a king whom we love. The Bearnese is free-born, he will not die a
slave. Let the king have all from us in love and not by force; our blood
is his and our country's. Let none come to take our lives when we are
defending our liberty."

Legal in Normandy, violent in Brittany, tumultuous in Bearn, the
parliamentary protests took a politic and methodical form in Dauphiny.
An insurrection amongst the populace of Grenoble, soon supported by the
villagers from the mountains, had at first flown to arms at the sound of
the tocsin. The members of the Parliament, on the point of leaving the
city, had been detained by force, and their carriages had been smashed.
The troops offered little resistance; an entry was effected into the
house of th