inary regiments.
Their commanding officer at this moment was not only an aristocrat but
a martinet, and he completely failed to keep his regiment in hand.
Trouble had long been brewing in the ranks and culminated in mutiny and
riot at the close of June. Making the most of the state of Paris many
of the mutinous guardsmen took their liberty and refused to return to
barracks. Clearly what between the accomplished revolt of the Third
Estate, the incipient revolt of Paris, and the open mutiny of the
troops, something had to be done.

Necker's return to the Ministry had been imposed on the Court, and
although his policy of accepting the fusion of the orders was followed,
his influence really amounted to little. The Queen and the Comte
d'Artois soon plucked up courage after their first defeat, and took up
once more the policy of repression; but {63} as it was now apparently
useless to attempt to stem the tide by means of speeches or decrees,
they persuaded the King that force was the only means. By using the
army he could get rid of Necker, get rid of the National Assembly, and
reduce Paris to order.

Accordingly the Marshal de Broglie, a veteran of the Seven Years' War,
was put in charge of military matters, and an old Swiss officer, the
Baron de Besenval, was placed in immediate command of the troops.
Regiments were brought in from various quarters, and by the end of the
first week of July the Court's measures were developing so fast, and
appeared so dangerous, that the assembly passed a vote asking the King
to withdraw the troops and to authorize the formation of a civic guard
in Paris. The King's answer, delivered on the 10th, was negative and
peremptory; his troops were to be employed to put down disorder.

At this crisis the action of the assembly and of Paris became more
definitely concerted. The government of the city had been in the hands
of a somewhat antiquated board presided over by a provost of the
merchants. It was too much out of touch with the existing movement to
have any influence, and felt its impotence so keenly that it would
willingly {64} have resigned its power. At the time of the elections
to the States-General the Government had broken up Paris into sixty
electoral districts for the sake of avoiding the possibility of large
meetings. These sections, as they were called, had formed committees,
and these committees, towards the middle of June, had been coming
together again informally and te