et, and polluted the very
air of the palace by their vulgar and obscene ribaldry. As night
approached, huge fires were built, upon which the dead bodies of the
massacred Royalists were thrown, and all were consumed.

During all the long hours of that dreadful day, and until two o'clock
the ensuing night, the royal family remained, almost without a change of
posture, in the narrow seat which had served them for an asylum. Who can
measure the amount of their endurance during these fifteen hours of
woe? An act was passed, during this time, in obedience to the demands of
the mob, dethroning the king. The hour of midnight had now come and
gone, and still the royal sufferers were in their comfortless
imprisonment, half dead with excitement and exhaustion. The young
dauphin had fallen asleep in his mother's arms. Madame Elizabeth and the
princess, entirely unnerved, were sobbing with uncontrollable grief. The
royal family were then transferred, for the remainder of the night, to
some deserted and unfurnished rooms in the old monastery of the
Feuillants. Some beds and mattresses were hastily collected, and a few
coarse chairs for their accommodation. As soon as they had entered these
cheerless rooms, and were alone, the king prostrated himself upon his
knees, with his family clinging around him, and gave utterance to the
prayer, "Thy trials, O God! are dreadful. Give us courage to bear them.
We adore the hand which chastens, as that which has so often blessed us.
Have mercy on those who have died fighting in our defense."

Utter exhaustion enabled the unhappy family to find a few hours of
agitated sleep. The sun arose the ensuing morning with burning rays,
and, as they fell upon the eyelids of the queen, she looked wildly
around her for a moment upon the cheerless scene, and then, with a
shudder, exclaiming, "Oh! I hoped it was all a dream," buried her face
again in her pillow. The attendants around her burst into tears. "You
see, my unhappy friends," said Maria, "a woman even more unhappy than
yourselves, for she has caused all your misfortunes." The queen wept
bitterly as she was informed of the massacre of her friends the
preceding day. Already the royal family felt the pressure of poverty.
They were penniless, and had to borrow some garments for the children.
The king and queen could make no change in their disordered dress.

At ten o'clock in the morning, a guard came and conducted the royal
family again to the Assembly.