Part 47 (1/2)

The king took his place by the side of the president, the queen and her ladies took the chairs of the ministers. Then came an angry cry from the tribune: ”The dauphin must sit with the king, he belongs to the nation. The Austrian has no claim to the confidence of the people.”

An officer came down to take the child away, but Louis Charles clung to his mother, fear was expressed on his features, tears stood in his eyes, and won a word of sympathy, so that the officer did not venture to remove the prince forcibly.

A deep silence sat in again, till the king raised his voice. ”I have come hither,” he said, ”to prevent a great crime, and because I believe that I am safest surrounded by the representatives of the nation.”

”Sire,” replied President Vergniaud, ”you can reckon upon the devotion of the National a.s.sembly. It knows its duties; its members have sworn to live and to die in defence of the rights of the people and of the const.i.tutional authorities.”

Voices were heard at this point from all sides of the hall, declaring that the const.i.tution forbids the a.s.sembly holding its deliberations in the presence of the king and the queen.

They then took the royal family into the little low box scarcely ten feet long, in which the reporters of the ”Logograph” used to write their accounts of the doings of the a.s.sembly. Into this narrow s.p.a.ce were a king, a queen, with her sister and her children, their ministers and faithful servants, crowded, to listen to the discussions concerning the deposition of the king.

From without there came into the hall the wild cry of the populace that the Swiss guards had been killed, and shouts accompanied the heads as they were carried about on the points of pikes. The crack of muskets was heard, and the roar of cannon. The last faithful regiments were contending against the army of the revolutionists, while within the hall the election by the French people of a General Convention was discussed.

This scene lasted the whole day; the whole day the queen sat in the glowing heat, her son asleep in her lap, motionless, and like a marble statue. She appeared to be alive only when once in a while a sigh or a faint moan escaped her. A gla.s.s of water mixed with currant-juice was the only nourishment she took through the day.

At about five in the afternoon, while the a.s.sembly was still deliberating about the disposal of the king, Louis turned composedly around to the valet who was standing back of him.

”I am hungry,” he said; ”bring me something to eat!” Hue hastened to bring, from a restaurant near by, a piece of roast chicken, some fruit and stewed plums; a small table was procured, and carried into the reporters' box of the ”Logograph.”

The countenance of the king lightened up a little, as he sat down at the table and ate his dinner with a good appet.i.te. He did not hear the suppressed sobs that issued from a dark corner of the box. To this corner the unhappy woman had withdrawn, who yesterday was Queen of France, and whose pale cheeks reddened with shame at this hour to see the king eating with his old relis.h.!.+

The tears started afresh from her eyes, and, in order to dry them, she asked for a handkerchief, for her own was already wet with her tears, and with the sweat which she had wiped from the forehead of her sleeping boy. But no one of her friends could reach her a handkerchief that was not red with the blood of those who had been wounded in the defence of the queen!

It was only at two o'clock in the night that the living martyrdom of this session ended, and the royal family were conducted to the cells of the former Convent des Feuillants, which was above the rooms of the a.s.sembly, and which had hastily been put in readiness for the night quarters of the royal family. Hither armed men, using their gun-barrels as candlesticks for the tapers which they carried, marched, conducting a king and a queen to their improvised sleeping- rooms. A dense crowd of people, bearing weapons, surrounded them, and often closed the way, so that it needed the energetic command of the officer in charge to make a free pa.s.sage for them. The populace drew back, but bellowed and sang into the ears of the queen as she pa.s.sed by:

”Madame Veto avait promis D'fegorger tout Paris.”

These horrible faces, these threatening, abusive voices, frightened the dauphin, who clung tremblingly to his mother. Marie Antoinette stooped down to him and whispered a few words in his ear. At once the countenance of the boy brightened, and he sprang quickly and joyfully up the staircase; but at the top he stood still, and waited for his sister, who was so heavy with sleep that she had to be led slowly up. ”Listen, Theresa,” said the prince, joyously, ”mamma has promised me that I shall sleep in her room with her, because I was so good before the bad people. ” [Footnote: Goncourt.--”Histoirede Marie Antoinette,” p. 234.] And he jumped about delightedly into the rooms which had been opened, and in which a supper had been even prepared. But suddenly, his countenance darkened, and his eyes wandered around with an anxious look.

”Where is Moufflet?” he asked. ”He came with me, and he was with me when we left the box. Moufflet, Moufflet, where are you, Moufflet?”

and asking this question loudly, the dauphin hurried through the four rooms everywhere seeking after the little dog, the inheritance from his brother, the former Dauphin of France.

But Moufflet did not come, and all search was in vain; no Moufflet was to be found. He had probably been lost in the crowd, or been trodden under foot.

When at last silence and peace came, and the royal family were resting on their hard beds, sighs and suppressed sobs were heard from where the dauphin lay. It was the little fellow weeping for his lost dog. The heir of the kings of France had to-day lost his last possession--his little, faithful dog.

Marie Antoinette stooped down and kissed his wet eyes.

”Do not cry, my boy; Moufflet will come back again tomorrow.”

”To-morrow! certainly, mamma?”

”Certainly.”

The boy dried his tears, and went to sleep with a smile upon his lips.

But Marie Antoinette did not sleep; sitting erect in her bed, she listened to the cries and fiendish shoutings which came up from the terrace of the Feuillants, as the people heaped their abuses upon her, and demanded her head.

On the next day new sufferings! The royal family had to go again into the little box which they had occupied the day before; they had to listen to the deliberation of the National a.s.sembly about the future residence of the royal family, which had made itself unworthy to inhabit the Tuileries, while even the Luxemburg palace was no suitable residence for Monsieur and Madame Veto.