did not know you, but I see that you are good." At this moment
Santerre made his way through the crowd. Easily moved, and sensitive
though coarse, Santerre had roughness, impetuosity, and feelings easily
affected. The faubourgs opened before him and trembled at his voice. He
made an imperious sign for them to leave the apartment, and thrust
these men and women by the shoulders towards the door in front of the
_OEil de Boeuf_. The current advanced by opposite issues of the
palace, and the heat was suffocating. The dauphin's brow reeked with
perspiration beneath the _bonnet rouge_. "Take the cap off the child,"
shouted Santerre; "don't you see he is half stifled." The queen darted a
mother's glance at Santerre, who came towards her, and placing his hand
on the table, he leaned towards Marie Antoinette and said, in an under
tone, "You have some very awkward friends, madame; I know those who
would serve you better!" The queen looked down, and was silent. It was
from this moment that may be dated the secret understanding which she
established with the agitators of the faubourgs. The leading malcontents
received the queen's entreaties with complacency. Their pride was
flattered in raising the woman whom they had degraded. Mirabeau,
Barnave, Danton had in turns sold or offered to sell the influence of
their popularity. Santerre merely offered his compassion.

XXIII.

The Assembly had again resumed its sitting on the news of the invasion
of the Chateau. A deputation of twenty-four members was sent as a
safeguard for the king. Arriving too late, these deputies wandered in
the crowded court-yard, vestibules, and staircases of the palace.
Although they felt repugnance at the idea of the last crime being
committed on the person of the king, they were not very grievously
afflicted in their hearts at this long-threatened insult to the court.
Their steps were lost in the crowd, their words in the uproar. Vergniaud
himself, from a top step of the grand staircase, vainly appealed to
order, legality, and the constitution. The eloquence, so powerful to
incite the masses, is powerless to check them. From time to time the
royalist deputies, highly indignant, returned to the chamber, and,
mounting the tribune, with their clothes all in disorder, reproached the
Assembly with its indifference. Amongst these more conspicuously,
Vaublanc, Ramond, Becquet, Girardin. Mathieu Dumas, La Fayette's friend,
exclaimed, as he pointed to the windows o