isit to the hotel d'Azay and the
affair of the rue St. Antoine, that the day arrived for the consummation
of that great event toward which all France, nay, all Europe, had been
looking for months past.

With a sudden burst and glory of sunshine and warm air the long, hard
winter had given way to the spring of that year of 1789. By the end of
April the green grass and flowering shrubs looked as if summer had come,
and the cruel cold of but a few weeks back was all but forgotten. And
with the quickening pulse of nature the agitation and restless activity
among all classes had increased. The whole kingdom of France was astir
with the excitement of the rapidly approaching convocation of the
States-General. Paris read daily in the columns of the _Moniteur_ the
names of the newly elected deputies, and by the 1st of May those
deputies were thronging her streets.

D'Azay, Lafayette, Necker, Duport, Lameth, and many others, who saw
their ardent wishes materializing, were quite beside themselves with
delight, and prophesied the happiest things for France. Madame d'Azay,
being of the court party, held widely differing views from those of her
nephew, and was out of all conceit with this political ferment, while
as for Adrienne, she looked upon the opening of the States-General and
the grand reception of the King on the 2d of May as splendid pageants
merely, to which she would be glad to lend her presence and the lustre
of her beauty. Indeed, it is safe to say that for nearly every
individual in that restless kingdom of France the States-General held a
different meaning, a different hope, a different fear. Fortunate it was
for all alike, that none could see the ending of that terrible business
about to be set afoot.

In all the brilliant weather of that spring of 1789, no fairer day
dawned than that great day of Monday, the 4th of May. By earliest
morning the whole world of Paris seemed to be taking its way to
Versailles. Mr. Jefferson, having presented Calvert with the billet
reserved for Mr. Short (the secretary being absent at The Hague), and
Mr. Morris being provided for through the courtesy of the Duchesse
d'Orleans, the three gentlemen left the Legation at six in the morning
in Mr. Jefferson's coach. The grand route to Versailles was thronged
with carriages and vehicles of every description, and the dust, heat,
and confusion were indescribable. On their arrival, which was about
eight o'clock, being hungry and thirsty, the g