the revolution, of King
Louis and his family, where they could be closely watched by their
enemies, describing in alarming terms, the danger to his majesty if he
did not comply with the request. Accordingly, after hours of
indescribable horrors and humiliation and anguish, the king was obliged
to give his consent to the plan, and the royal family made ready for
their departure from Versailles. During their seven hours' journey to
Paris, they were followed by a rabble of such human fiends as had
invaded the palace at Versailles, and although throughout the whole
terrible trip, Marie Antoinette and the King bore themselves with sad
and dignified composure, yet the strain on them both was almost too
great to be borne. Through all the agony and excitement, the Dauphin
frightened though he was, seeing his mother's tears, tried to smile
courageously into her face, and to keep back words of complaint, and
the sight of his courage almost broke his mother's heart. What would
this all mean to him, the future king of France? Alas, poor little
Dauphin!

At last they reached the Tuileries, the royal palace in Paris, where no
French King had lived since Louis Fifteenth was a young man. There had
been no preparations made for the coming of the royal family. The
palace, so long uninhabited was in a state of dilapidation, and there
were no comforts in it, and very few necessities. But the travellers
were too much exhausted to heed anything but that they had reached a
temporary shelter and were relieved that death, which the day before
had seemed so imminent, had been, for the present, put aside.

Exhausted to the breaking point, Marie Antoinette slept soundly that
night, and on the next morning as she sipped her chocolate in a room
which had been hastily transformed into a sitting-room for her, she was
thinking sadly of life and its changes when the door opened and the
Dauphin ran in and flung himself into her arms.

"Oh, mamma," he cried, "please let us go back to our beautiful palace
at home. This big house frightens me with its shadows. Why have we come
here, mamma, when we have such a lovely palace and garden of our own?"

The queen sighed.

"My son," she said, "this palace belongs to us too, as well as
Versailles, and it is considered a beautiful palace. It is where the
great Louis Fourteenth lived, you know."

"Well, I don't like it at all and I wish we could go away," whispered
the Dauphin, casting a homesick look around