der.
The King could not, in fact, reach the summit of the altar, because a
throng of suspicious-looking persons had already taken possession of it.

Deputy Dumas had the presence of mind to cry out: "Attention,
Grenadiers! present arms!" The intimidated _sans-culottes_ remained
quiet, and Louis XVI. took the oath amid the thundering of the cannon
ranged beside the Seine.

{254}

It was then proposed to the King that he should set fire to the Tree of
Feudalism; it was close to the river and the arms of France were hung
upon it. Louis XVI. spared himself that shame, exclaiming, "There is
no more feudalism!" He returned to the Military School by the way he
came. The 6th legion of the National Guard had not yet marched past
when the cavalry announced the King's approach. This legion,
quickening its pace, was intercepted by the royal escort, and invaded,
not to say routed, by the populace, which from all sides pressed into
its ranks.

Meanwhile the anguish of Marie Antoinette redoubled. "The expression
of the Queen's face," Madame de Stael says again, "will never be
effaced from my memory. Her eyes were drowned in tears; the splendor
of her toilette, the dignity of her demeanor, contrasted with the
throng that surrounded her. Nothing separated her from the populace
but a few National Guards; the armed men assembled in the Champ-de-Mars
seemed more as if they had come together for a riot than for a
festival." Petion, who had been reinstated in his functions as mayor
of Paris on the previous day, was the hero of the occasion. They
called him King Petion, and the cheers which resounded in honor of this
revolutionist were like a funeral knell in the ears of Marie Antoinette.

At last Louis XVI. appeared in front of the Military School. The Queen
experienced a momentary joy in seeing him approach. Rising hastily,
she ran {255} down the stairs to meet him. Always calm, the King
tenderly clasped his wife's hand. At once royalist sentiment took
fire. All who were present--National Guards, troops of the line,
Switzers, people in the courts, at the windows, on balconies and
gates--all cried: "Long live the King! Long live the Queen!" The
royal family regained the Tuileries in the midst of acclamations. At
the entrance of the palace enthusiasm deepened. From the Royal Court
to the great stairway of the Horloge Pavilion, the grenadiers of the
National Guard, who had escorted and saved the King, formed into line