pproachable pomp
and power. The servants of the king, in terror, fled in every direction.
Still the crowd came rushing and roaring on, crashing the doors before
them, till they approached the apartment in which the royal family was
secluded. The king, who, though deficient in active energy, possessed
passive fearlessness in the most eminent degree, left his wife,
children, and sister clinging together, and entered the adjoining room
to meet his assailants. Just as he entered the room, the door, which was
bolted, fell with a crash, and the mob was before him. For a moment the
wretches were held at bay by the calm dignity of the monarch, as,
without the tremor of a nerve, he gazed steadily upon them. The crowd in
the rear pressed on upon those in the advance, and three friends of the
king had just time to interpose themselves between him and the mob, when
the whole dense throng rushed in and filled the room. A drunken
assassin, with a sharp iron affixed to a long pole, aimed a thrust
violently at the king's heart. One blow from an heroic citizen laid him
prostrate on the floor, and he was trampled under the feet of the
throng. Oaths and imprecations filled the room; knives and sabers
gleamed, and yet the majesty of royalty, for a few brief moments,
repelled the ferocity of the assassins. A few officers of the National
Guard, roused by the peril of the king, succeeded in reaching him, and,
crowding him into the embrasure of a window, placed themselves as a
shield before him. The king seemed only anxious to withdraw the
attention of the mob from the room in which his family were clustered,
where he saw his sister, Madame Elizabeth, with extended arms and
imploring looks, struggling to come and share his fate. "It is the
queen!" was the cry, and a score of weapons were turned toward her. "No!
no!" exclaimed others, "it is Madame Elizabeth." Her gentle spirit, even
in these degraded hearts, had won admiration, and not a blow fell upon
her. "Ah!" exclaimed Madame Elizabeth, "why do you undeceive them?
Gladly would I die in her place, if I might thus save the queen." By the
surging of the crowd she was swept into the embrasure of another window,
where she was hemmed in without any possibility of extrication. By this
time the crowds were like locusts, climbing up the balconies, and
pouring in at the windows, and every foot of ground around the palace
was filled with the excited throng. Shouts of derision filled the air,
while the