Do you understand
me?"
"Oh! yes, papa," cried the child, who had listened with open eyes
and breathless attention, "I understand all very well. But I don't
like it. It seems to me that if a man is king, every thing belongs
to him, and that the king ought to have all the money so as to give
it to the people. They ought to ask HIM, and not he THEM!"
"In former and more happy times it was so," said the king, with a
sigh. "But many kings have misused their power and authority, and
now the king cannot pay out money unless the people understand all
about it and consent!"
"Have you given out money, papa, without asking the people's leave?
Was that the reason they came to Versailles yesterday, and were so
wicked, ah! so very wicked? For those bad men-they were the people,
were they not?"
"No, my son," answered Louis, "I hope they were not the people. The
people cannot come to me in such great masses; they must have their
representatives. The representatives of the people I have myself
called to me; they are the States-General, which I assembled at
Versailles. I asked of them money for the outlays which I had to
make for the people, but they asked things of me that I could not
grant, either for my own sake, or for yours, my son, who are some
day to be my successor. Then wicked men came and stirred up the
people, and told them that I did not love the people any more, and
that I wanted to trouble my subjects.
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