ll attest the existence of this decree."
The deputies confirmed his words. Nevertheless, the crowd still
hesitated to leave the way clear. The man with the pole kept on
brandishing it, and crying: "Down with them! down with them!"
Roederer, going on to the terrace, snatched the pole and flung it into
the garden. The crowd was so compact that in the midst of the squabble
some one stole the Queen's watch and her purse. A man with a sinister
face approached the Dauphin, took him from Marie Antoinette, and lifted
him in his arms. The Queen uttered a cry. "Do not be frightened,"
said the man; "I will do him no harm." Another person said to Louis
XVI.: "Sire, we are honest men; but we are not willing to be betrayed
any longer. Be a good citizen, and don't forget to drive away your
shavelings and your wife." Insults and threats resounded from all
sides. Finally, after an actual struggle, the royal family succeeded
{298} in opening a passage. They made their way with difficulty
through the narrow lobby, choked with people, penetrated the crowd, and
entered the session chamber. It was there that royalty, humiliated and
overcome, was to lie at the point of death under the eyes of its
implacable enemies.

{299}

XXIX.

THE BOX OF THE LOGOGRAPH.

The royal family has just entered the session chamber. It will find
there not an asylum, but the vestibule of the prison and the scaffold.
The man who had taken the Dauphin from the Queen's arms at the door of
the Assembly set him down on the secretary's desk with an air of
triumph, and the young Prince was greeted with applause. Marie
Antoinette advanced with dignity. According to Vaublanc's expression,
she would not have had a different bearing or a more august serenity on
a day of royal pomp. Louis XVI. took a place near the president. The
Queen, her daughter, Madame Elisabeth, and Madame de Tourzel sat down
on the ministerial benches. As soon as the Dauphin was left to
himself, he sprang towards his mother. A voice cried: "Take him to the
King! The Austrian woman is unworthy of the people's confidence." An
usher attempted to obey this injunction. However, the child began to
cry, people were affected, and he was allowed to remain with the Queen.
At this moment some armed noblemen made their appearance at the
extremity of the hall. "You {300} compromise the King's safety!"
exclaimed some one, and the nobles retired.

Order was restored. Louis XVI. be