Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/439

 The French Revolution .401 negotiations with the party he proposed to attack. This man played at revolution in order to gain a fortune. The queen told me at this time that he asked for an embassy, — Con- stantinople, if I remember rightly. He was refused with that proper contempt which vice inspires, but which policy would doubtless best have disguised, if the future could have been foreseen. 1 The general enthusiasm which prevailed during the early Alarm of sessions of the Assembly, the discussions among the depu- the court ties of the third estate and nobility, and even of the clergy, filled their Majesties and those attached to the cause of monarchy with increasing alarm. . . . The deputies of the third estate arrived at Versailles with the deepest prejudices against the court. The wicked sayings of Paris never fail to spread throughout the provinces. The deputies believed that the king indulged in the pleasures of the table to a shameful excess. They were persuaded that the queen exhausted the treasury of the state to gratify the most unrea- sonable luxury. Almost all wished to visit the Little Trianon. 2 The ex- treme simplicity of this pleasure house did not correspond with their ideas. Some insisted that they be shown even the smallest closets, on the ground that some richly furnished apartments were being concealed from them. At last they designated one which they declared was said to be decorated throughout with diamonds and twisted columns set with sapphires and rubies. The queen could not get these silly ideas out of her head and told the king about them. He thought, from the description of the room furnished to the guards in the Trianon, that the deputies had in mind the decoration of imitation diamonds in the theater at Fontaine- bleau constructed in Louis XV's reign.* 1 The queen abhorred Mirabeau, who had scandalized even the court by his private immorality. His attempts to save the king and queen (see below, pp. 414 sqq.) were viewed as vulgar plots for his own advancement. 2 A simple little pleasure house in a secluded part of the gardens at Versailles, much beloved by the queen on account of its retirement.