8. Malouet, Mémoires, I, 321.

The meeting of the tennis court was the natural consequence of the half measures opposed to the audacious enterprises of the commons. I persist in maintaining that we should not have been refused entrance to our hall without being sent back to our baillages, and with the very clear announcement to the nation that the purpose of the adjournment was only to assure the full and entire execution of the national wishes, already changed and violated by the present assembly of the commons.

The oath of the tennis court was a signal of insurrection. I proposed uselessly an amendment to the effect that we should never separate from the king; my proposition was received with hoots. The general opinion then was that the king, the court, and the first two orders wished to annul the estates, arrest the patriotic deputies, and establish despotism by an armed force.

The scene of the tennis court is still exaggerated. When I advanced to the table to propose as an amendment to make the constitution in concert with the king, M. Bailly said, "That is just, but I shall not put it to the vote that it may not be rejected." I insisted. I proposed especially the oath with a condition and several deputies supported me.¹ Malouet, Opinions, III, 209.

¹ Paragraph three appears as a footnote in the Mémoires, page 321.