petition, and he reply. But they were no longer
fitted for coming to an understanding. They despised him as weak, and a
double-dealer; and he despised them for their ignorance, their tatters,
and dirt. He showed this day that he was no coward. He was indolent,
irresolute, and unable to act; but he could endure. After this day, no
one could, unrebuked, call him a coward. When the mob began battering
upon the door of the room in which he was, he ordered it to be thrown
open. Some of the gentlemen of his household had rushed in through
another door, and requested him to stand in the recess of a large
window. They drove up a heavy table before him, and ranged themselves
in front of it. They begged him not to be alarmed. "Put your hand on
my heart," replied the king, "and see if I am afraid." The Princess
Elizabeth flew to see what was doing to her brother. She heard fierce
threats from the mob against the queen. They vowed they would have the
blood of the mischievous Austrian woman. The attendants begged the
princess to go away from this scene. "No," said she, "let them take me
for the queen, and then she may have time to escape." They forced her
away, however, with what emotions of admiration words cannot express.

The king demanded of the riotous crowd what it was that they wanted.
They cried that they would have the patriot ministers back again, and no
prohibition about the clergy and the army. The king replied that this
was not the way, nor the time, to settle such matters. Those who heard
him must have respected him for having at last given a good and decided
answer. During the rest of the time, about three hours, he stood in the
recess of the window, while the mob passed to and fro before the broad
table which stood between him and them. At the very beginning of the
scene one of the people handed him a red woollen cap, such as the
furious revolutionary people had taken to wearing, to show their
patriotism. This cap the king was bid to wear. He put it on; and it
was matter of complaint against him afterwards by his aristocratic
adherents, that he had worn the red cap for three hours. The fact was
that he did not feel the cap on the top of his hair, matted with pomatum
and powder as hair then was, and forgot it, till his family noticed it
on his meeting them again. He declared himself thirsty, and a
ragamuffin handing him a half-empty bottle, he drank from it.

The queen had attempted, with her c