that
the States-General met at Versailles on the 5th of May in 1789. That
day sounded the knell of the Monarchy.

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PLATE VII.-MARIE ANTOINETTE AND HER CHILDREN

(At Versailles)

The last portrait that Vigee Le Brun painted of the doomed queen was
the canvas that hangs at Versailles known as "Marie Antoinette and her
Children," in which the queen is seen seated beside a cradle with the
baby Duke of Normandy on her knee, the little Madame Royale at her
side, and the small Dauphin pointing into the cradle. When the doors
of the Salon of 1788 were thrown open the painting was not quite
finished; and for some days the frame reserved for it remained empty.
It was on the eve of what was to become the Revolution, and the country
was speaking now in no hushed whispers of the public deficit in the
nation's treasury, and gazing bewildered at the bankruptcy that
threatened the land. The empty frame drew forth the bitter jest:
"Voila, le deficit!"

[Illustration: Plate VII.]

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In little over a month the States-General was become the
self-constituted National Assembly; a few days later, on the 20th of
June, the deputies took the solemn oath in the tennis-court--the _jeu
de paume_. At the queen's foolish urging the king fell back on force;
filled Paris with troops under De Broglie; dismissed Neckar. The
people at once took to arms. The 14th of July saw the fall of the
hated Bastille. On the 22nd the people hanged Foulon to the
street-lamp at the corner of the Place de Greve--and thenceforth the
terrible shout _a la lanterne!_ became the cry of fashion.

Such was the dawn of the Revolution in the streets of Paris, upon which
Vigee Le Brun's eyes gazed down terrified in her thirty-fourth year.

Quickly followed the rumblings of the dark thunder-clouds that came up
in threatening blackness behind the dawn--and which were about to burst
with a roar upon reckless Paris.

The king showed astounding courage and considerable capacity during
these awful days; but his work was constantly thwarted and ruined by
the Court party and the queen. On the 3rd of October the officers of
the regiment of Flanders were foolishly entertained at Versailles, and
the whole Court being present, the white cockade of the Bourbons was
distributed amidst rapturous approval, and the national tricolour
trodde