s seven
o'clock in the morning.

The king and queen, with their two children, Madame Elizabeth, and a few
personal friends, descended the great stair-case of the Tuileries, to
pass out through the bands of soldiers and the tumultuous mob to the
hall of the Assembly. At the stair-case there was a large concourse of
men and women, gesticulating with fury, who refused to permit the royal
family to depart. The tumult was such that the members of the royal
family were separated from each other, and thus they stood for a moment
mingled with the crowd, listening to language of menace and insult, when
a deputy assured the mob that an order of the Assembly had summoned the
royal family to them. The rioters then gave way, and the mournful group
passed out of the door into the garden. They forced their way along,
surrounded by a few friends, through imprecations, insults, gleaming
daggers, and dangers innumerable, until they arrived at the hall of the
Assembly, which the king was with difficulty enabled to enter, in
consequence of the immense concourse which crowded him, thirsting for
his blood, and yet held back by an unseen hand. As the king entered the
hall, he said, with dignity, to the president, "I have come here to save
the nation from the commission of a great crime. I shall always consider
myself, with my family, safe in your hands." The royal family sat down
upon a bench. Mournful silence pervaded the hall. A more sorrowful,
heart-rending sight mortal eyes have seldom seen. The father, the
mother, the saint-like sister, the innocent and helpless children, had
found but a momentary refuge from cannibals, who were roaring like
wolves around the hall, and battering at the doors to break in and
slake their vengeance with blood. It was seriously apprehended that the
mob would make a rush, and sprinkle the blood of the royal family upon
the very floor of the sanctuary where they had sought a refuge.

Behind the seat of the president there was a box about ten feet square,
constituting a seat reserved for reporters, guarded by an iron railing.
Into this box the royal family were crowded for safety. A few friends of
the king gathered around the box. The heat of the day was almost
insupportable. Not a breath of air could penetrate the closely-packed
apartment; and the heat, as of a furnace, glowed in the room. Scarcely
had the royal family got into this frail retreat, when the noise without
informed them that their friends were f