ard. This motley mass was trundled along, singing the
"Marseillaise" and other revolutionary songs, and presenting far more
the aspect of a mob than that of an army. In the position in which
the king was placed, with troops upon many of whom he could place but
little reliance, they were the more to be dreaded. Three
commissioners were sent in advance of the revolutionary troops to
demand of the king an unqualified resignation of the crown for
himself and his descendants. The king received them with calmness and
dignity.

"What do you wish with me?" he said. "I have arranged every thing
with the Duke of Orleans, my lieutenant-general of the kingdom."

M. Odillon Barrot replied, "If the king would avoid involving the
kingdom in unheard-of calamities and a useless effusion of blood, it
is indispensable that his majesty and his family should instantly
leave France. There are eighty thousand men who have issued from
Paris, ready to fall on the royal forces."

The king took Marshal Maison, another of the commissioners, aside
into the embrasure of a window, and said to him, "Marshal Maison, you
are a soldier and a man of honor. Tell me, on your word of honor, is
the army which has marched out of Paris against me really eighty
thousand strong?"

"Sire," the marshal replied, "I can not give you the number exactly;
but it is very numerous, and may amount to that force."

"Enough," said the king; "I believe you, and I consent to every thing
to spare the blood of my Guard."

Orders were immediately issued for the prompt departure of the court
for Cherbourg, there to embark for some foreign land. In a few hours
the mournful procession was in movement. The long cortege of
carriages was accompanied by several regiments of the Guard. Sad
indeed must have been the emotions of the inmates of those carriages
as they commenced their journey from the splendors of royalty to the
obscurity of exile. Slowly this funereal procession of departed power
was seen winding its way through the distant provinces of the realm,
to find in foreign lands a refuge and a grave.

The first night they stopped at Maintenon, where the illustrious
family of Noailles received the royal fugitives with sympathy and
generous hospitality, in one of the most ancient and splendid
country-seats of the kingdom. Here, the next morning, the king took
leave of the greater part of his Guard. He reserved for his escort
but a few hundred select troops, with six pieces