After pacifying Armand, Joseph left the Peterson Theatre and boarded a horse-drawn cab to prepare for his home. The two-wheeled carriage walked slowly along the road, and because the weather was good on the day, Joseph put away the carport and looked around.

By this time the carriage had followed the Seine and had reached the Île de la Cité. The Île de la Cité is the heart of Paris and the birthplace of the city of Paris. Notre-Dame Cathedral is on this island. Joseph looked in all directions, and in the distance he could see the high spire of Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Pont Neuf lying across the Seine. The Pont Neuf has the word "new" in its name, but in fact it is an old bridge built in the 15th century, and even the oldest bridge on the entire Seine.

The speed of the carriage slowed down, because there were more people and cars on the street, and this area, which was already the most prosperous area of Paris, was actually normal for this phenomenon to occur. But as the carriage continued to move forward, there were more and more people on the streets, almost to the point of rubbing shoulders.

The coachman reined in his horse, turned to Joseph, and said, "Sir, I don't know what happened in front of me, so I can't get over." If you want to take a detour and cross the river from another bridge, you will have to walk a long way, spend a lot of time, and add more money. I think you might as well get off here and walk through this section to the other side of the river and find a light carriage to save a bit. ”

Joseph looked ahead, and the new bridge was crowded with people, and it was obvious that the carriage could not pass. Joseph knew that the coachman was right, so he nodded, took two sues from his pocket, handed them to the coachman, then lifted his hat, took his cane, got out of the carriage, and walked down the street toward the Pont Neuf.

The further you go, the more people there are. The noises also get noisier. Joseph noticed that almost everyone around him had an anxious and worried look on their faces, but there was a hint of excitement on their faces. He kept hearing words like this:

"What is the third level? The third estate is France, which is all ......"

"We must not have only one vote in the third estate......"

"Yes, we can't bear to let them ......"

"We have to have our own ......"

"We have to defend ourselves ......"

"Without the National Assembly, without the Constitution, no one will want to take a single Su from us!"

Joseph grabbed a young man by the hand and asked, "What happened?" ”

"The King announced the closure of the Meni Assembly Hall, and some say that the King is also dissolving the National Assembly! We must not allow him to do so! The man replied.

Before Joseph could reply, his other hand reached over and grabbed his arm. Joseph turned his head and saw the same young, anxious, worried, and excited face: "This gentleman, we must no longer allow those privileged classes to trample on us at will, we are not lowly dirt, we are the real France!" Are you right! ”

Obviously, at this time, it would be unwise to express any dissenting opinion. So Joseph immediately replied: "You are right, we cannot let them trample on it like this." ”

"Constitution, we need a constitution!" Not far away, someone shouted.

"Yes, we must have a constitution, and we cannot let the king and the privileged class do whatever they want!"

"The king will send troops to suppress us, and I have heard that he is quietly mobilizing his army now, and he intends to kill us all as soon as the time comes, as in the case of St. Bartholomew's massacre." Another voice suddenly rang out.

The people next to him were silent all of a sudden, people looked at each other, and everyone could see fear in the eyes of others.

"They...... They do things like that......" said one person.

"We must not let them do that."

"The soldiers are also of the third rank, they will not ......"

"But the soldiers have to obey orders, and they can use the money to buy the mercenaries, and use the money they have scavenged from us to hire the mountain people to kill us!"

"We have to be ready, we can't just kill ......"

Listening to these cries, Joseph knew that history had finally come to this point.

A few days earlier, at the Estates-General's meeting, the king, although he had agreed to the request to increase the number of representatives of the Third Estate from three hundred to six hundred, insisted that each estate could only vote once, according to the traditional way. In France, 98 percent of people belong to the third estate, but they can only cast one vote. And the clergy of the first rank, and the hereditary nobility of the second rank also have one vote. The rules of the game almost mean that no matter how you play, the privilege hierarchy can do whatever it wants with the vote advantage. And the interests of the vast third estate will not be guaranteed in any way.

To say that this method of distribution of votes is indeed a French tradition, but at this time, King Louis XVI still expected that the Third Estate, which had become economically powerful and intellectually influenced by the Enlightenment, would be as it would have been with the serfs and the like of serfs more than a hundred years ago.

Naturally, those of the third estate could not have accepted such an arrangement. The third estate as a whole is not completely unacceptable to tax increases, but they are demanding more rights while accepting taxes. To put it more clearly, that is, it's okay to ask for money, but you have to take things out in exchange, and you can't take money for nothing.

When the king proposed to convene the Estates-General, the Estates-General saw it as an opportunity for them to gain more power. As soon as the news of the Estates-General was imminent, Sieyès published a political pamphlet, "What is the Third Estate", which explicitly stated that the Third Estate should be given a higher status. The king's "adherence to tradition" can be said to be completely in opposition to the entire Third Estate.

Naturally, the representatives of the Third Estate would not (and the entire Third Estate behind them would not allow it) to submit to the king in this way, so they declared themselves to form the "National Assembly" of the representatives of the Third Estate, who declared themselves absolute authority over the legislative power and claimed that they would write the first constitution for France.

This kind of "transgression" will certainly not be allowed by the king. Louis XVI ordered the closure of the Meni Assembly Hall, which had been intended for the delegates of the Third Estate to be used for deliberations. There are also rumors that he is ready to dissolve the "illegal" "National Assembly" by force. That's when the news got here.

At this moment, a middle-aged priest-like figure appeared at the bridge of the new bridge, and the crowd immediately cheered for him.

"Mr. Sières! It's Mr. Sières! Someone shouted.

"Mr. Sières, Mr. Sières, what shall we do? What are we going to do! Someone else shouted.

Siyes boarded the cart pushed by a trader on the side of the bridge and waved to the crowd: "Don't worry, this will not scare us, we will go to the Meni Hall tomorrow." We will never dissolve the ...... if we do not have a constitution for France that truly represents the will of the people."

There was a burst of cheers all around. Joseph also applauded, and he saw that the new bridge was crowded with people, and if he tried to cross the river from there, he was afraid that his clothes would be torn. Apparently he, like the light carriage, needed another detour......

However, as the news spread, the whole of Paris boiled. Almost all of them poured into the streets. Everywhere you go, you can see people talking or whispering. Every street is crowded like a wet market. It wasn't until late that Joseph returned to his lodgings.

At noon the next day, Joseph heard the news that the delegates of the "National Assembly" had gone to the Meni Assembly Hall in the rain to continue the discussion of the constitution, but they were stopped by the army sent by the king. So the delegates, led by the first president of the National Assembly, Bayi, decided to defend the nascent National Assembly, and they went to the royal tennis court near the synagogue. There the representatives of the Third Estate swore an oath that each of them would commit themselves to the constitution of the kingdom to improve the monarchy and would never separate from the National Assembly.

Many people are worried about whether the king will send troops to the royal tennis court to arrest these "daring" third-estate representatives. But for several days, there was no movement on the king's side. 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 Orleans was one of the most prominent families in France, and the Marquis de Lafayette was the commander-in-chief of the French army in the North American Revolutionary War, and his command played a key role in the decisive battle of Yorktown. Because of this, he was called "the hero of the new world" by the Americans. And his victory is also a rare victory for France against Britain in so many years. As a result, the Marquis de Lafayette also had considerable prestige in the army. This move by the Duke of Orleans and the Marquis de Lafayette immediately boosted the morale of the "National Assembly" and greatly strengthened their legitimacy. They could already claim that they were not just representatives of the Third Estate, but of the First and Second Estates, of the whole of France.

A few days later, the "National Assembly" was officially renamed the "National Constituent Assembly" and was ready to officially begin the drafting of the "Constitution of the Kingdom of France". At the same time, rumors began to circulate that the king had transferred large numbers of troops, especially mercenaries, to Paris. A lot of supporters of the Third Estate began to prepare their weapons and prepare them for battle.

It was in the midst of such frenzy and apprehension that Armand's "Spartacus" was finally staged.