"Will you not tell me now, my dear son," he said to Toulan--"will
you not tell me now why you wish so strongly to celebrate the
wedding in Versailles, and not in Paris, and why in the church of
St. Louis?"
"I will tell you, father," answered Toulan, pressing the arm of his
bride closer to his heart. "I wanted here, where the country erects
its altar, where in a few days the nation will meet face to face
these poor earthly majesties; here, where in a few days the States-
General will convene, to defend the right of the people against the
prerogative of the sovereign, here alone to give to my life its new
consecration. Versailles will from this time be doubly dear to me. I
shall owe to it my life's happiness as a man, my freedom as a
citizen. They have done me the honor in Rouen to elect me to a place
in the Third Estate, and as, in a few days, the Assembly of the
Nation will meet here in Versailles, I wanted my whole future
happiness to be connected with the place. And I wanted to be married
in St. Louis's church, because I love the good King Louis. He is the
true and sincere friend of the nation, and he would like to make his
people happy, if the queen, the Austrian, would allow it."
"Yes, indeed," sighed the councillor, who, in spite of his relation
to Madame de Campan, belonged to the opponents of the queen--" yes,
indeed, if the Austrian woman allowed it.
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