10. Rabaut De Saint-Étienne. Précis Historique De La Révolution Française, 132.

The twentieth of June, after the national assembly had constituted itself, the members of the clergy were expected to join it. But while the deputies were going to the hall a proclamation was made by heralds at arms and posted everywhere, announcing that the sessions were suspended, and that the king would hold a royal session on the 22d. The reason given for the closing of the hall for three days was the necessity of work in the interior in the decoration of the throne. This puerile reason served to prove that they only wished to prevent the union of the clergy, the majority of which had adopted the system of the commons. However, the deputies arrived one after another, and they felt the deepest indignation on finding the doors closed and guarded by soldiers. They asked each other what power had the right to suspend the deliberations of the representatives of the nation. They talked of holding their meeting in the street, of going to the terrace of Marly to offer the king the spectacle of the deputies of the people, to invite him to unite with them in a truly royal and paternal session more worthy of his heart than that with which he menaced them. M. Bailly, their president, was permitted to enter the hall with some members to get their papers; and there he protested against the arbitrary orders which kept the hall closed. Finally he assembled the deputies in the tennis court of Versailles, become famous forever on account of the courageous resistance of the first representatives of the French nation. They encouraged one another as they went along; they promised never to separate from one another, and to resist to the death. They arrived there; they sent out a call for the deputies who were not informed of what was going on. A sick deputy had himself taken to the hall. The people, who besieged the door, covered their representatives with benedictions. Soldiers disobeyed orders to come and guard the entrance to this new sanctuary of liberty. A voice was heard; it asked that each one should take the oath never to separate from the others, to assemble in any place whatsoever until the constitution of the monarchy and public reforms had been secured. All took the oath, all signed except one; and the minutes make mention of this remarkable circumstance.