After placating Armand, Joseph left the Petersen Theater and got into a light rental wagon pulled by a one-horse-drawn horse, ready to go home. The two-wheeled wagon made its way slowly along the road, and since it was a nice day, Joseph stowed the shed and looked around.
By this time, the carriage was following the Seine and had come alongside the Île de la Cité. The Île de la Cité is the heart of Paris and the birthplace of the city. Notre Dame de Paris was on this island. Joseph looked in all directions and could see the high spires of Notre Dame and the new bridge that lay across the Seine as far as the eye could see. The Pont Neuf has the word "Neuf" in its name, but it is an old bridge built in the fifteenth century, one of the oldest on the Seine.
The carriage's speed slowed because more people and wagons were on the streets. This phenomenon was quite normal, originally the most prosperous area in Paris. But as the carriage continued, the streets became increasingly crowded, almost to the point of being shoulder to shoulder.
The coachman reined in his horse and turned to Joseph, "Sir, I don't know what's going on up ahead, I can't get through. If you have to take a detour and cross the river from another bridge, I'm afraid you'll have to travel a lot further, spend a lot of time, and add more money. I think it would be more economical for you to just get off here, walk across this section, and find a light wagon when you get to the other side of the river."
Joseph looked ahead and saw that the new bridge was crowded, and the wagons obviously couldn't get across. Knowing that the coachman was right, Joseph nodded, took two sous out of his pocket, handed them to the coachman, and then, holding up his hat and picking up his cane, got out of the coach and walked down the street toward Newbridge.
The further you go, the more people there are. And the noisier the various sounds became. Joseph noticed that the faces of almost everyone around him showed both anxious concern and a vague hint of excitement. He also kept hearing some of these words in his ears:
"What is the Third Estate? The Third Estate is France, it's everything ..."
"We must not have only one vote at the third estate ..."
"Right, we can't bear to leave them ..."
"We need to have our own ..."
"We Will Defend Ourselves ..."
"Without a National Assembly, without a constitution, no one is going to take a sou from us!"
Joseph took a young man by the hand and asked, "What happened?"
"The King has announced the closure of the Estates General, and some say that the King will also dissolve the National Assembly!, and we must not allow him to do so!" The man replied.
Before Joseph could answer, another hand came up and grabbed his arm. Joseph twisted his head around to see a face that was equally young and equally anxious and worried and excited: "Sir, we must not let the privileged estates trample on us as they please any longer, we are not lowly clay, we are the real France! Don't you think so!"
Obviously, it would be unwise to voice any disapproval at this point in time. So Joseph immediately replied, "You're right, we can't just let them trample on us like this."
"A constitution, we need a constitution!" Not far off to the side, someone shouted.
"That's right, we need a constitution, we can't let the king and the privileged do whatever they want!"
"The King will send his troops to suppress us, I've heard it said that he's quietly mobilizing his army right now, and that he intends to kill us all as soon as the time is right, just like the St. Bartholomew's Massacre." Another voice suddenly rang out.
The sidewalk was quiet for a moment as people looked at each other, each seeing fear in the eyes of the others.
"They ... they are capable of such things ..." said one.
"We must not let them do that."
"Soldiers are also third estate, they don't ..."
"But the soldiers have to obey orders, and they can still use the money to buy the mercenaries, just to hire the hillbillies to kill us with the money they've raided from us!"
"We have to be ready, we can't just tie our hands ..."
Listening to the cries, Joseph knew that history had finally come to this.
A few days ago, at the Estates General, the King, while agreeing with the request to increase the number of representatives of the Third Estate from three hundred to six hundred, insisted on the traditional way in which each estate is limited to one vote. In France, ninety-eight percent of the population belongs to the third estate but can only cast one vote. Clergymen of the first rank and hereditary nobles of the second rank all have a vote. Such rules of the game pretty much mean that no matter how it's played, the privileged ranks can do whatever they want by virtue of their vote advantage. And the interests of the vast third estate are not guaranteed in any way.
The distribution of votes is indeed a French tradition. However, at this time, King Louis XVI still expects that the third estate, which had become economically stronger than ever before and had accepted the influence of the Enlightenment in its thinking, would still be like the serfs of more than a hundred years ago, and will be manipulated as he pleases, which can only be said to mean that he is not sober enough in the head.
It is naturally impossible for those representatives of the third estate to accept such an arrangement. The entire third estate is actually not totally unable to accept tax increases, but they are demanding more rights while accepting the imposition of taxes. To put it more clearly, that means it's okay to ask for money, but you have to take something out in exchange for it. You can't take money for nothing.
When the king offered to call Estates General, all three estates saw this meeting as an opportunity for them to gain more power. As soon as the news of the upcoming Third Estate meeting broke, Sieyès published a political pamphlet, "What is the Third Estate," which made a clear case that the Third Estate deserved a higher status. The King's "adherence to tradition" can be considered completely antithetical to the entire third estate.
Naturally, the deputies of the third estate would not (nor would the whole of the third estate behind them allow it) submit to the king in this way. So they declared themselves to form a "National Assembly" of deputies of the third estate, who proclaimed themselves to be of absolute authority in the legislative power and claimed that they would draw up the first constitution for France.
Of course, this "unauthorized" practice would not have been permitted by the king. Louis XVI then ordered the closure of the Estates General, which had been provided for the delegates of the third estate and used for deliberations. There are also rumors that he is preparing to dissolve the "illegal" National Assembly forcefully. That's when the news got here.
At that moment, a middle-aged clergyman-like man appeared at the head of the new bridge, and the crowd immediately cheered toward him.
"Mr. Sieyès! It's Mr. Sieyès!" Someone shouted.
"Mr. Sieyès, Mr. Sieyès, what do we do? What do we do!" Others shouted this.
Sieyès boarded a wheelbarrow pushed by one of the traders at the bridge and waved to the crowd: "Don't worry people, this won't scare us, we will head to the Estates General tomorrow as usual. We will never dissolve ... without a constitution for France that truly represents the will of the people."
There was an outpouring of applause from all around. Joseph applauded along with him, and he looked at the crowded side of the new bridge. And if he insisted on crossing the river there, he was afraid that his clothes would be squeezed through. Apparently, he, like the moped, needs another detour ...
Yet as the news spread, all of Paris was boiling. Almost all the people poured into the streets. Everywhere they could see people talking or whispering. Every street was crowded, like a food market. As a result, it was not until nightfall that Joseph was able to return to his place.
At noon the next day, Joseph heard the news that the "National Assembly" delegates had gone to the Estates General in the rain to continue their deliberations on the constitution. Still, they were prevented from doing so by the King's troops. So the delegates, led by Mirabeau, the first National Assembly president, decided to defend the fledgling National Assembly, and they went to the King's Tennis Court near the palace. The representatives of the third estate took an oath there that any one of them would work for the constitution of the kingdom for the improvement of the monarchy and would never separate from the National Assembly.
Many people are worried that the King will send his soldiers to the Royal Tennis Court to arrest these "daring" third estate representatives. But there was nothing from the king's side for days on end. On the contrary, a group of representatives of the first and second estates, led by the Duke of Orléans and the Marquis de Lafayette, joined the "National Assembly". The House of Orléans was one of the most prominent families in France. The Marquis de Lafayette was the commander-in-chief of the French army in the American War of Independence, and his command played a crucial role in the duel at Yorktown.
For this reason, he has been called by the Americans "the hero of the two worlds". And his victory was one of France's few victories over England in so many years. As a result, the Marquis de Lafayette was also quite prestigious in the army. The move by the Duke of Orléans and the Marquis de Lafayette immediately boosted the morale of the National Assembly and strengthened its legitimacy. By this time, they could claim to be representatives not only of the third estate but of the whole of France, including the first and second estates.
A few days later, the National Assembly was officially renamed the National Constituent Assembly and was ready to begin work on the Constitution of the Kingdom of France. At the same time, rumors began to circulate in the marketplace that the king was moving large numbers of troops, especially mercenaries, to Paris. Many third-estate supporters began to prepare their weapons for battle.
It was with such fervor and apprehension that Armand's Spartacus was finally staged.