[The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France by Charles Duke Yonge]@TWC D-Link bookThe Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France CHAPTER XXIV 3/21
He carried the address which he proposed, to entreat the king to withdraw the troops; but Louis had for the moment resolved on adopting bolder counsels than those of Necker.
He declined to comply with the petition, declaring that it was his duty to keep in Paris a force sufficient to preserve the public tranquillity, though, if the Assembly were disquieted by their neighborhood, he expressed his unwillingness to remove their session to some more distant town.
And at the same time he dismissed Necker from office, banishing him from France, but ordering him to keep his departure secret. The queen had evidently had great influence in bringing him to this decision; but how cordially she approved of all the concessions which the king had already made, and how clearly she saw that more still remained to be done before the necessary reformation could be pronounced complete, the letter which on the evening of Necker's dismissal she wrote to Madame de Polignac convincingly proves.
She had high ideas of the authority which a king was legitimately entitled to exercise; and to what she regarded as undue restrictions on it, injurious to his dignity, she would never consent.
She probably regarded them as abstract questions which had but little bearing on the substantial welfare of the people in general; but of all measures to increase the happiness of all classes, even of the very lowest, she was throughout the warmest advocate. "July 11th, 1789. "I can not sleep, my dear heart, without letting you know that M.Necker is gone.MM.de Breteuil and de la Vauguyon will be summoned to the council to-morrow.
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