gods of vengeance, and from that dust sprang Marius, Marius
less great for having exterminated the Cimbri than for having struck down
at Rome the aristocracy of the noblesse."

Mirabeau was shut out from the states-provincial and soon adopted eagerly
by the third estate. Elected at Marseilles as well as at Aix for the
States-general, he quieted in these two cities successively riots
occasioned by the dearness of bread. The people, in their enthusiasm,
thronged upon him, accepting his will without a murmur when he restored
to their proper figure provisions lowered in price through the terror of
the authorities. The petty noblesse and the lower provincial clergy had
everywhere taken the side of the third estate. Mirabeau was triumphant.
"I have been, am, and shall be to the last," he exclaimed, "the man for
public liberty, the man for the constitution. Woe to the privileged
orders, if that means better be the man of the people than the man of the
nobles, for privileges will come to an end, but the people is eternal!"

Brittany possessed neither a Mounier nor a Mirabeau; the noblesse
there were numerous, bellicose, and haughty, the burgessdom rich and
independent. Discord was manifested at the commencement of the
states-provincial assembled at Rennes in the latter part of December,
1788. The governor wanted to suspend the sessions, the two upper orders
persisted in meeting; there was fighting in the streets. The young men
flocked in from the neighboring towns; the states-room was blockaded.
For three days the members who had assembled there endured a siege; when
they cut their way through, sword in hand, several persons were killed
the enthusiasm spread to the environs. At Angers, the women published a
resolution declaring that "the mothers, sisters, wives, and sweethearts
of the young citizens of Angers would join them if they had to march to
the aid of Brittany, and would perish rather than desert the
nationality." When election time arrived, and notwithstanding the
concessions which had been made to them by the government, the Breton
nobles refused to proceed to the nominations of their order if the choice
of deputies were not intrusted to the states-provincial; they persisted
in staying away, thus weakening by thirty voices their party in the
States-general.

The great days were at hand. The whole of France was absorbed in the
drawing up of the memorials (_cahiers_) demanded by the government from
each ord