Let us be correct; the Communes did not obtain at once the audience that
they demanded on account of the difficulties of the ceremonial. They
would have wished to make the Third Estate speak kneeling. "This
custom," said M. de Barentin, "has existed from time immemorial, and if
the king wished...." "And if twenty-five millions of men do not wish
it," exclaimed Bailly, interrupting the minister, "where are the means
to force them?" "The two privileged orders," replied the Guard of the
Seals, somewhat stunned by the apostrophe, "no longer require the Third
Estate to bend the knee; but, after having formerly possessed immense
privileges in the ceremonial, they limit themselves now to asking some
difference. This difference I cannot find." "Do not take the trouble to
seek for it," replied the President hastily: "however slight the
difference might be, the Communes will not suffer it."

This digression was required through a grave and recent error. The
memory of Bailly will not suffer by it, since it has afforded me the
opportunity of establishing, beyond any reply, that in our fellow
academician a noble firmness was on occasions allied to urbanity,
mildness, and politeness. But what will be said of the puerilities which
I have been obliged to recall, of the mean pretensions of the courtiers
on the eve of an immense revolution? When the Greeks of the Lower
Empire, instead of going on the ramparts valiantly to repel the attacks
of the Turks, remained night and day collected around some sophists in
their lyceums and academies, their sterile debates at least related to
some intellectual questions; but at Versailles, there was nothing in
action, on the part of two out of three orders, but the most miserable
vanity.

By an express arrangement, decreed from the beginning, among the Members
of the Communes, the Dean or President had to be renewed every week.
Notwithstanding the incessant representations of Bailly, this
legislative article was long neglected, so fortunate did the Assembly
feel in having at their head this eminent man, who to undeniable
knowledge, united sincerity, moderation, and a degree of patriotism not
less appreciated.

He thus presided over the Third Estate on the memorable days that
determined the march of our great revolution.

On the 17th of June, for instance, when the Deputies of the Communes,
worn out with the tergiversations of the other two orders, showed that
in case of need they would act with