believe that one battalion
would have conquered all the scum of Paris, had not the king, at
the sound of the first shot, sent word to the Swiss to cease firing.
They obeyed, and although the mob kept firing upon them from the
windows, the great part of them marched calm, and without returning
a shot, to the Assembly, where, at the order of the king, they laid
down their arms and were shut up in the church of the Feuillants.

"A portion of the Swiss had remained on guard in the Tuileries when
the main body marched away. The instant the palace was undefended
the mob burst in. Every Swiss was murdered, as well as many of
the servants of the queen. The mob sacked the palace and set it on
fire. When the Swiss left we had one by one made our way out by a
back entrance, but most of us were recognized by the mob and were
literally cut to pieces. I rushed into a house when assaulted,
and, slamming the door behind me, made my way out by the back and
so escaped them, getting off with only these two wounds; then I
hurried to a house of a friend, whom I had seen murdered before my
eyes, but his servants did not know of it, and they allowed me to
remain there till dark, and you see here I am."

"But what has happened at the Assembly and where is the king?" the
marquise asked, after the first exclamation of horror at the tale
they had heard.

"The king and his family are prisoners in the Temple," the marquis
said. "The Commune has triumphed over the Assembly and a National
Convention is to be the supreme power. The king's functions are
suspended, but as he has not ruled for the last three years that
will make little difference. A new ministry has been formed with
Danton, Lebrun, and some of the Girondists. He and his family are
handed over to the care of the Commune, and their correspondence is
to be intercepted. A revolutionary tribunal has been constituted,
when, I suppose, the farce of trying men whose only crime is loyalty
to the king is to be carried out.

"We must be prepared, my love, to face the worst. Escape is now
impossible, and, indeed, so long as the king and queen are alive I
would not quit Paris; but we must prepare for sending the children
away if possible."

CHAPTER V

The Outburst

"Monsieur le Marquis," M. du Tillet exclaimed, hurrying into the
salon, in which the marquis with his family were sitting, on the
evening of the 21st of August, "I hear that it is rumoured in the
street that all the m