In November, 1787, the Notables assembled at Versailles in the grand hall
of the palace guards. In May, 1789, the Salon of Hercules witnessed the
presentation of the twelve hundred deputies elected by the people in all
parts of France to the States-General. The Assembly, "the true era of
the birth of the French people," opened on May fifth in the immense
_Salle des Menus_, on the Paris Avenue, outside the gates of the palace.
During the thirty days that the deputies sat inactive under the oratory
of the King, of Necker, Mirabeau and Robespierre, work ceased throughout
the kingdom. "He who had but his hands, his daily labor, to supply the
day, went to look for work, found none, begged, got nothing, robbed.
Starving gangs over-ran the country; wherever they found any resistance,
they became furious, killed, and burned. Horror spread far and near;
communications ceased, and famine went on increasing." At last the
Assembly was founded, but the nation remained in tumult, the King
vacillating, the Queen in retirement, mourning the death of the little
Dauphin. On June twentieth, the people's representatives gathered, in
spite of the King, in the bare tennis-court, without the walls of the
chateau, and made oath as citizens of France never to adjourn until they
had given their country a constitution. On the same day Marie Antoinette
inscribed a letter from Versailles whose import was in piteous contrast
to the prattling epistles of her girlhood.
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