o the
coach. It was the Princess Elizabeth. If anybody in the street
wondered to see ladies coming the same way, one after another, the
answer was easy; they had, no doubt, been at the palace.

Presently, the coachman's hand was again upon the door; and a gentleman,
stout, in a round hat, was seen coming, leaning upon the arm of a
servant. As he passed a sentinel, one of his shoe buckles gave way. He
stooped down and clasped it. Glad were the party in the coach when the
king stepped in. They were all there now but the queen; and it was
rather odd that she should be the last.

One looked from the window, and then another watched; and still she did
not come. It must have been a terrible worry,--waiting and waiting
there,--the Count afraid of what everybody in the street might think of
a coach standing so long before one door;--the party within afraid of
something having happened to the queen. Minute after minute passed
slowly away, and then,--"what is this? Here is some great man's
carriage, with lights all about it, dashing up the street!" It was
Lafayette's carriage, evidently in a prodigious hurry: and it went under
the arch; it was certainly going to the palace.

It _was_ going to the palace. Madame R---'s eyes were as quick as ever.
She had told her lover perpetually that she was sure the royal family
were going off; and Gouvion had kept constantly on the watch, but could
discover nothing. This evening she had told him that she was sure they
meant to go in the night. Gouvion sent an express for Lafayette, who
came directly. He thought he met no one in the courts,--saw nothing
suspicious. The sentinels were all at their posts, and the royal family
(as all the palace believed) quietly in their chambers. So Lafayette
went away again, telling his officer that he must have been deceived,
and bidding him beware of treachery.

Lafayette was mistaken if he thought he had met no one within the
precincts of the palace. Under the arch he had whirled past two
people,--a lady in white, with something in her hand, leaning on a man's
arm. The lady had even touched the spoke of one of his carriage-wheels
with that which she had in her hand,--a sort of switch, which it was
then the fashion for ladies to carry. This lady was the queen, and she
was conducted by a faithful body-guard. However faithful this man might
be, he did not know the way; and the queen's guard on such an occasion
should also have been a wel