s soon as it was light, Lafayette
led into a balcony the commander of the Flanders regiment,--the
body-guard,--with a huge tricolor in his hat, instead of the royal white
cockade. All the soldiers of the regiment immediately mounted tricolor
cockades, and were cheered by the mob. The king appeared on the
balcony, with Lafayette, and they cheered him too; but some voices cried
that he must go to Paris.

The mob then demanded to see the queen. She asked for her children; and
they were brought to her, probably not very willing to face the noisy
multitude. She took Louis in her arms, and led his sister by the hand,
and stepped out on the balcony, with Lafayette by her side. There was a
shout, "No children!" It does not seem clear why the people would not
have the children too; but the queen believed that it was intended that
some one should shoot her as she stood, and that the children were not
to be endangered. She gently pushed them back, and bade them go in, and
then stepped forward in the sight of the people, with her hands and eyes
raised to heaven. Lafayette took her hand, and, kneeling reverently,
kissed it. This act turned the tide of the people's feelings, and they
cheered the queen. It was finely done of Lafayette, both for presence
of mind and noble feeling.

Here was the difference between the enraged people and their enlightened
leaders. Lafayette was a friend of the people, and an enemy to tyranny:
but he had not been ground down by poverty, reared in hunger and brutal
ignorance, and taught to hate proud and selfish oppressors with a cruel
hatred. Such was the difference between him and this wretched mob, whom
we feel more disposed to pity than to blame, so great was their
ignorance, and so terrible had been the sufferings of their lives.
Lafayette's eyes were opened by knowledge and reflection, while theirs
were closed by passion and prejudice. They believed that all royal
rulers were wicked, and the queen the most wicked of all; and that if
she were but out of the way, with a few more, all would go right,--bread
would be cheap, the nobility less extravagant and oppressive, and the
king willing to govern by men of the people's choice. Lafayette saw
that all this was very foolish. He saw that nothing could be worse than
the state of France,--the tyranny of the nobility,--the extravagance and
frivolity of the court,--and the wretchedness of the people. He was for
amending all this; but he knew