who, to the somewhat passive excellences
of her husband added fascinating graces and lofty energies of which he was
unhappily destitute, were subjected to the most disgusting indignities, to
the tyranny of the vilest monsters who ever usurped authority over a
nation, and to the daily insults of the meanest of their former subjects,
who thought to make a merit with their new masters of their brutality to
those whose birthright had been the submission and reverence of all around
them.

Vergniaud's motion had only extended to the suspension of the king from
his functions till the meeting of the Convention; but no one could doubt
that that suspension would never be taken off, and that Louis was in fact
dethroned. Marie Antoinette never deceived herself on the point, and,
retaining the opinion as to the fate of deposed monarchs which she had
expressed three years before, pronounced that all was over with them. "My
poor children," said she, apostrophizing the little dauphin and his
sister, "it is cruel to give up the hope of transmitting to you so noble
an inheritance, and to have to say that all is at an end with ourselves;"
and, lest any one else should have any doubt on the subject, the Assembly
no longer headed its decrees with any royal title, but published them in
the name of the nation. In one point the resolutions of the 10th were
slightly departed from. The municipal authorities reported that the
Luxembourg had so many outlets and subterranean passages, that it would be
difficult to prevent the escape of a prisoner from that palace; and
accordingly the destination of the royal family was changed to the Temple.
Thither, after having been compelled to spend two more days in the
Assembly, listening to the denunciations and threats of their enemies,
whom even the knowledge that they were wholly in their power failed to
pacify, they were conveyed on the 13th; and they never quit it till they
were dragged forth to die.

The Temple had been, as its name imported, the fortress and palace of the
Knights Templars, and, having been erected by them in the palmy days of
their wealth and magnificence, contained spacious apartments, and
extensive gardens protected from intrusion by a lofty wall, which
surrounded the whole. It was not, unfit for, nor unaccustomed to, the
reception of princes; for the Count d'Artois had fitted up a portion of it
for himself whenever he visited the capital. And to his apartments those
who had the cus