Pierre was there too, buttoned up since early morning in a nobleman’s uniform that had become too tight for him. He was agitated; this extraordinary gathering not only of nobles but also of the merchant-class⁠— les états généraux (States-General)⁠—evoked in him a whole series of ideas he had long laid aside but which were deeply graven in his soul: thoughts of the Contrat Social and the French Revolution. The words that had struck him in the Emperor’s appeal⁠—that the sovereign was coming to the capital for consultation with his people⁠—strengthened this idea. And imagining that in this direction something important which he had long awaited was drawing near, he strolled about watching and listening to conversations, but nowhere finding any confirmation of the ideas that occupied him.