the public mind, the newspapers published the debates of the assembly, and
enabled the public to be present, as it were, at its deliberations, and
the questions mooted in its bosom were discussed in the open air, in the
public squares. It was at the Palais Royal, more especially, that the
assembly of the capital was held. The garden was always filled by a crowd
that seemed permanent, though continually renewed. A table answered the
purpose of the _tribune_, the first citizen at hand became the orator;
there men expatiated on the dangers that threatened the country, and
excited each other to resistance. Already, on a motion made at the Palais
Royal, the prisons of the Abbaye had been broken open, and some grenadiers
of the French guards, who had been imprisoned for refusing to fire on the
people, released in triumph. This outbreak was attended by no
consequences; a deputation had already solicited, in behalf of the
delivered prisoners, the interest of the assembly, who had recommended
them to the clemency of the king. They had returned to prison, and had
received pardon. But this regiment, one of the most complete and bravest,
had become favourable to the popular cause.

Such was the disposition of Paris when the court, having established
troops at Versailles, Sevres, the Champ de Mars, and Saint Denis, thought
itself able to execute its project. It commenced, on the 11th of July, by
the banishment of Necker, and the complete reconstruction of the ministry.
The marshal de Broglie, la Galissonniere, the duke de la Vauguyon, the
Baron de Breteuil, and the intendant Foulon, were appointed to replace
Puysegur, Montmorin, La Luzerne, Saint Priest, and Necker. The latter
received, while at dinner on the 11th of July, a note from the king
enjoining him to leave the country immediately. He finished dining very
calmly, without communicating the purport of the order he had received,
and then got into his carriage with Madame Necker, as if intending to
drive to Saint Omer, and took the road to Brussels.