heard Louis say his prayers, and when Clery put him into bed.

Louis had added to his prayer one for the safety and welfare of Madame
de Tourzel. He had so well learned the temper and feelings of the
guards that were always about the family, that when one of them stood
near enough to hear the words of his prayer, he repeated the parts in
which persons were named in a whisper.

At nine o'clock, Clery went down to wait at supper. As the Dauphin was
never to be left alone, while such guards stood about, his mother and
aunt took it in turn to sit beside him; and Clery brought up supper for
whichever of them it might be. This afforded opportunity for a few more
words of news, if there was any to tell.

After supper the king attended his wife, sister, and daughter to the
queen's apartment, shook hands with them as he said good-night, and
retired to his little study, where he read till midnight. The guard was
changed at midnight; and the king would never go to rest till he knew
who was to be on guard. If it was a stranger, he would learn his name.
This kept Clery up too. After he had assisted the king to undress, he
lay down on his small bed, which he had placed beside that of the king,
in order to be at hand in case of danger.

Such was the course of the weary days of this unhappy family's
imprisonment. The king does not seem to have been troubled by any
suspicion that they were all here through his fault; and there was
nothing in their conduct to remind him of it. They could not but have
felt it; but they probably did not blame, but only mourned over him.
His quietness they called heroism, and his indolent content, patience.
His worst weaknesses were hidden here, where there was nothing to be
done. The queen would have been better pleased if he had never spoken
to any of their gaolers; but, upon the whole, they managed to persuade
themselves and each other that he was a martyr suffering in piety and
patience. We should have thought better of him if he had shown himself
capable of self-reproach for having done nothing in defence of his
crown, his family, and friends, but much towards the destruction of all.
If he had been brave and sincere, however ignorant and mistaken, his
family would now have been in a condition of honour and safety, though
perhaps exiles from France.

These dreary days were varied by the arrival of bad news; never of
good,--though the taking of Verdun at first looked like good news. It
do