<P> The commoners had formed the National Guard, sporting tricolour cockades (cocardes) of blue, white and red, formed by combining the red and blue cockade of Paris and the white cockade of the king . These cockades, and soon simply their colour scheme, became the symbol of the revolution and, later, of France itself . </P> <P> Paris, close to insurrection and, in François Mignet's words, "intoxicated with liberty and enthusiasm", showed wide support for the Assembly . The press published the Assembly's debates; political debate spread beyond the Assembly itself into the public squares and halls of the capital . The Palais - Royal and its grounds became the site of an ongoing meeting . The crowd, on the authority of the meeting at the Palais - Royal, broke open the prisons of the Abbaye to release some grenadiers of the French guards, reportedly imprisoned for refusing to fire on the people . The Assembly recommended the imprisoned guardsmen to the clemency of the king; they returned to prison, and received pardon . The rank and file of the regiment, previously considered reliable, now leaned toward the popular cause . </P> <P> On 11 July 1789, Louis XVI - acting under the influence of the conservative nobles of his privy council--dismissed and banished his finance minister, Jacques Necker (who had been sympathetic to the Third Estate) and completely reconstructed the ministry . The marshals Victor - François, duc de Broglie, la Galissonnière, the duc de la Vauguyon, the Baron Louis de Breteuil, and the intendant Foulon, took over the posts of Puységur, Armand Marc, comte de Montmorin, La Luzerne, Saint - Priest, and Necker . </P> <P> News of Necker's dismissal reached Paris in the afternoon of Sunday, 12 July . The Parisians generally presumed that the dismissal marked the start of a coup by conservative elements . Liberal Parisians were further enraged by the fear that a concentration of Royal troops--brought in from frontier garrisons to Versailles, Sèvres, the Champ de Mars, and Saint - Denis--would attempt to shut down the National Constituent Assembly, which was meeting in Versailles . Crowds gathered throughout Paris, including more than ten thousand at the Palais - Royal . Camille Desmoulins successfully rallied the crowd by "mounting a table, pistol in hand, exclaiming:' Citizens, there is no time to lose; the dismissal of Necker is the knell of a Saint Bartholomew for patriots! This very night all the Swiss and German battalions will leave the Champ de Mars to massacre us all; one resource is left; to take arms!"' </P>

What events led to the storming of bastille