es not appear to have occurred to the king that, though his brothers
and other friends were nearer than they had been, his most deadly
enemies were nearer still,--close round about him, and sure to be made
more cruel by every alarm given them by his allies. The nearer the army
approached, the greater was the danger of the prisoners. A few minutes
after the Princess Elizabeth had read the words on the pasteboard, a new
guard arrived, in a passion of fear and anger. He bade them all go in;
he arrested and carried off Clery's fellow-servant, whom they never saw
again, though he got off with a month's imprisonment. While the valet
was packing up his clothes, the guard kept shouting to the king, "The
drum has beat to arms: the alarm-bell is ringing: the alarm-guns have
been fired: the emigrants are at Verdun. If they come here, we shall
all perish; but you shall die first." On hearing this, Louis burst into
an agony of tears, and ran out of the room. His sister followed, and
tried to comfort him. He saw that his father was not frightened. The
king was full of hope; but there was more reason for Louis's terror than
for his father's expectation of deliverance. Many warnings of the kind
occurred, but the king never believed them. One of his guards said to
him, one night, that if the invaders advanced, the whole royal family
would certainly perish. This man declared that many people pitied the
little boy; but that, as the son of a tyrant, he must die with the rest.

The fears of the disorderly people of Paris, who knew that they were ill
prepared for an invasion, made them desperate; and they began murdering
before the very gates of the prison, all whom they supposed to be the
king's friends, and therefore their enemies. It was not likely that the
Princess de Lamballe should escape,--she who had been the superintendent
of the royal household, and the intimate friend of the queen;--she who,
after having been in safety in London, had gone back to France, to share
the fortunes of her mistress and friend. This news of the taking of
Verdun cost her her life; and a multitude more were massacred during the
next three days.

In the night after the news came, the queen, who could not sleep, heard
the drums rolling continually. The next day, the 3rd of September, as
she was sitting down to backgammon with, the king, at three o'clock, a
great clamour was heard in the street. The officer on guard in the room
shut the window,