y prepared for him and was
intentionally so vague that it aroused but little enthusiasm; to them
that Monsieur le Garde des Sceaux appealed without great effect; and it
was, above all, to the tiers that Monsieur Necker, rising, addressed
himself, receiving in turn their warmest plaudits.

So long and so frequently interrupted by applause was Necker's report
that it was after four o'clock when the King rose to dismiss the
Assembly. As he descended the steps the Queen came forward to his side,
and, for the first time, a faint "Vive la Reine!" was heard. At the
sound a quick blush of pleasure showed in her pallid cheeks and she
courtesied low to the throng with such divine grace that the
acclamations redoubled. To this the Queen courtesied yet lower, and,
amid a very thunder of applause, the royal party left the hall, followed
by the deputies and the struggling throng of visitors.

Fatigued by the long seance, the excitement, and the tediousness of
Monsieur Necker's report, Mr. Jefferson hurried Mr. Calvert--Mr. Morris
had been carried off by Madame de Flahaut, to the great discomfiture of
Monsieur de Curt--into his coach and drove directly to Madame de
Tesse's, where they found apartments ready for them for the night and
where they could get some repose before dressing for dinner and the
King's levee, at which Mr. Jefferson intended to present both Mr. Morris
and Mr. Calvert to their Majesties.

CHAPTER XI

MR. CALVERT ATTENDS THE KING'S LEVEE

It had been the intention of the court to give but one levee--that to
the deputies on the Saturday preceding the opening of the
States-General, but so widespread and so profound had been the
dissatisfaction among the tiers at the treatment they had received on
that occasion at the hands of Monsieur de Breze, that the King had
hastily decided to hold another levee on the evening of the 5th of May,
to which all the deputies were again invited and at which much of the
formal and displeasing ceremony of the first reception was to be
banished. At the first levee His Majesty had remained in state in the
Salle d'Hercule, to which the deputies were admitted according to their
rank, the noblesse and higher clergy passing in through the great state
apartments, the tiers being introduced one after the other by a side
entrance. The King now rightly determined to receive all in the great
Salle des Glaces with as little formality as possible. But with that
unhappy fatality which se