Days of Glory

Abstract

The chapter follows Colson and his neighbors during the extraordinary spring and summer of 1789, with particular emphasis on their wavering views toward the king and the popular classes, and on the alternating emotions of joy and enthusiasm, on the one hand, and fear and suspicion, on the other. Particular attention is given to Colson’s descriptions of the Réveillon Riots of late April 1789; the deliberations in Versailles of the Estates General and, especially, of the Third Estate; the series of patriotic oaths in Versailles and in Paris; the fear of a mercenary army surrounding Paris and its supposed links to an “aristocratic plot”; the fall of the Bastille and the ensuing Great Fear in both Paris and the provinces; the decrees of the newly formed National Assembly in August 1789 abolishing feudalism and proclaiming a Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen; and the formation of a National Guard in Colson’s neighborhood and in Paris generally.