register: the Parlement demands instead a
'state of the expenditure,' a 'state of the contemplated reductions;'
'states' enough; which his Majesty must decline to furnish! Discussions
arise; patriotic eloquence: the Peers are summoned. Does the Nemean Lion
begin to bristle? Here surely is a duel, which France and the Universe
may look upon: with prayers; at lowest, with curiosity and bets. Paris
stirs with new animation. The outer courts of the Palais de Justice roll
with unusual crowds, coming and going; their huge outer hum mingles with
the clang of patriotic eloquence within, and gives vigour to it. Poor
Lomenie gazes from the distance, little comforted; has his invisible
emissaries flying to and fro, assiduous, without result.

So pass the sultry dog-days, in the most electric manner; and the whole
month of July. And still, in the Sanctuary of Justice, sounds nothing
but Harmodius-Aristogiton eloquence, environed with the hum of crowding
Paris; and no registering accomplished, and no 'states' furnished.
"States?" said a lively Parlementeer: "Messieurs, the states that should
be furnished us, in my opinion are the STATES-GENERAL." On which timely
joke there follow cachinnatory buzzes of approval. What a word to be
spoken in the Palais de Justice! Old D'Ormesson (the Ex-Controller's
uncle) shakes his judicious head; far enough from laughing. But the
outer courts, and Paris and France, catch the glad sound, and repeat
it; shall repeat it, and re-echo and reverberate it, till it grow a
deafening peal. Clearly enough here is no registering to be thought of.

The pious Proverb says, 'There are remedies for all things but death.'
When a Parlement refuses registering, the remedy, by long practice, has
become familiar to the simplest: a Bed of Justice. One complete month
this Parlement has spent in mere idle jargoning, and sound and fury; the
Timbre Edict not registered, or like to be; the Subvention not yet so
much as spoken of. On the 6th of August let the whole refractory
Body roll out, in wheeled vehicles, as far as the King's Chateau of
Versailles; there shall the King, holding his Bed of Justice, order
them, by his own royal lips, to register. They may remonstrate, in an
under tone; but they must obey, lest a worse unknown thing befall them.

It is done: the Parlement has rolled out, on royal summons; has heard
the express royal order to register. Whereupon it has rolled back again,
amid the hushed expectancy of men.