mination.
Banners of all hues were waving from the casements, and borne along by the
people; and in the midst of the wild procession were seen at a distance a
train of travelling carriages, loaded on the roofs with the basest of the
rabble. A mixed crowd of National Guards, covered with dust, and drooping
under the fatigue of the road, poissardes drunk, dancing, screaming the
most horrid blasphemies, and a still wider circle, which seemed to me
recruited from all the jails of Paris, surrounded the carriages, which I
at length understood to be those of the royal family. They had attempted
to escape to the frontier, had been arrested, and were now returning as
prisoners. I caught a glimpse, by the torchlight, of the illustrious
sufferers, as they passed the spot where I stood. The Queen was pale, but
exhibited that stateliness of countenance for which she was memorable to
the last; she sat with the Dauphiness pressed in her arms. The King looked
overcome with exhaustion; the Dauphin gazed at the populace with a child's
curiosity.

At the moment when the carriages were passing, an incident occurred
terribly characteristic of the time. A man of a noble presence, and with
an order of St Louis at his breast, who had been giving me a hurried and
anxious explanation of the scene, excited by sudden feeling, rushed
forward through the escort, and laying one hand on the royal carriage,
with the other waved his hat, and shouted, "Vive le Roi!" In another
instant I saw him stagger; a pike was darted into his bosom, and he fell
dead under the wheel. Before the confusion of this frightful catastrophe
had subsided, a casement was opened immediately above my head, and a woman,
superbly dressed, rushed out on the balcony waving a white scarf, and
crying, "Vive Marie Antoinette!" The muskets of the escort were turned
upon her, and a volley was fired at the balcony. She started back at the
shock, and a long gush of blood down her white robe showed that she had
been wounded. But she again waved the scarf, and again uttered the loyal
cry. Successive shots were fired at her by the monsters beneath; but she
still stood. At length she received the mortal blow; she tottered and fell;
yet, still clinging to the front of the balcony, she waved the scarf, and
constantly attempted to pronounce the words of her generous and devoted
heart, until she expired. I saw this scene with an emotion beyond my power
to describe; all the enthusiasm of popular cha