Sieyès had once written in a book: What was the Third Estate? Everything.
Louis XVI's announcement of the Estates-General was basically incapable of producing any meaningful discussion. The Estates-General's primary purpose was to approve the king's new taxes.
It was like Napoleon appearing at a reception: the crowd parted layer by layer, and everyone wanted him to stop in front of them. It was fine when he listened to one or two people, but if ten or a hundred people spoke at once, it was like entering a stock exchange, where traders had to shout to make themselves heard.
And shouting often bred tempers, which led to fists flying. The House of Commons had a "long and illustrious" history of brawling. In the beginning, members had been allowed to bring weapons into the chamber. Later, fearing someone might get killed, weapons were banned, and it became a matter of "arranging fights" instead. Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger had even fought a duel.
The new bourgeoisie did not know these rules. After all, they had never before entered the ruling class. Lucien must have learned a thing or two at the Spanish court, not just Flamenco.
Louis XIV had also learned much from the Spanish court, court etiquette among other things. Georgiana, that barbaric country woman, would never pay special attention to such matters.
Her inquisitive maid Matilda told her that all the mirrors at Malmaison had been veiled in black gauze. She had heard of the custom: covering mirrors with black gauze kept the ghosts inside from escaping. Afraid that Marie Antoinette's ghost might leave Tuileries Palace and return to Malmaison, she had found a "grand steward of the court" who was not a man at all, but Marie Antoinette's former chief lady-in-waiting. She taught the courtiers and servants