much richer one.  “The queen offered me the hat and anything I might desire,” writes the prelate, “telling me that she parted from me with regret, weeping at being obliged to do so, and permitting me to kiss her (l’embrasser) in token of her sorrow and her interest.”  “After having made the mistake of bringing him into the ministry,” says Madame Campan [Memoires, t. i. p. 33], “the queen unfortunately made an equally grave one in supporting him at the time of a disgrace brought upon him by the despair of the whole nation.  She considered it only consistent with her dignity to give him, at his departure, ostensible proofs of her esteem, and, her very sensibility misleading her, she sent him her portrait adorned with precious stones and the patent of lady of the palace for his niece, Madame de Courcy, saying that it was necessary to indemnify a minister sacrificed by the trickery of courts and the factious spirit of the nation.  I have since seen the queen shed bitter tears over the errors she committed at this period.”

On the 25th of August, 1788, the king sent for M. Necker.

A burst of public joy greeted the fall of the detested minister and the return of the popular minister.  There were illuminations in the provinces as well as at Paris, at the Bastille as well as the houses of members of Parliament; but joy intermingled with hate is a brutal and a dangerous one:  the crowd thronged every evening on the Pont-Neuf, forcing carriages as well as foot passengers to halt in front of Henry IV.’s statue.  “Hurrah for Henry IV.!  To the devil with Lamoignon and Brienne!” howled the people, requiring all passers to repeat the same cry.  It was remarked that the Duke of Orleans took pleasure in crossing over the Pont-Neuf to come in for the cheers of the populace.  “He was more crafty than ambitious, more depraved than naturally wicked,” says M. Malouet:  “resentment towards the court had hurried him into intrigue; he wanted to become formidable to the queen.  His personal aim was vengeance rather than ambition, that of his petty council was to effect an upheaval in order to set the prince at the head of affairs as lieutenant-general and share the profits.”

The tumult in the streets went on increasing; the keeper of the seals, Lamoignon, had tried to remain in power.  M. Necker, supported by the queen, demanded his dismissal.  His departure, like that of Brienne, had to be bought; he was promised an embassy for his son; he claimed a sum of four hundred thousand livres; the treasury was exhausted, and there was no finding more than half.  The greedy keeper of the seals was succeeded by Barentin, premier-president of the Court of Aids.  Two dummies, one dressed in a simarre (gown) and the other in pontifical vestments, were burned on the Pont-Neuf:  the soldiers, having been ordered to disperse the crowds, some persons were wounded and others killed; the mob had felt sure that they would not be fired upon, whatever disorder they showed; the wrath and indignation were great; there were threats of setting fire to the houses of MM. de Brienne and de Lamoignon; the quarters of the commandant of the watch were surrounded.  The number of folks of no avocation, of mendicants and of vagabonds, was increasing every day in Paris.