and drew the curtains,--knowing well what was the
matter. Clery at this moment entered. The queen asked him why he was
not at dinner. He replied that he was indisposed,--and well indeed he
might feel so. He had just sat down to dinner with Tison and his wife,
when something was held up at the window which he knew at a glance to be
the head of the Princess de Lamballe. He ran to prevent the queen's
hearing of it, if possible.

The king asked some of the officers if his family were in danger; and
was told that the people had heard that the royal prisoners had left the
Temple, and were crying out for the king to appear at a window; but that
this was not to be allowed, as the people must learn to have more
confidence in their magistrates. Meantime, curses of the queen were
heard without; and one of the guard told her that the people wanted to
show her her friend's head, that she might see how tyrants were to be
served; and that if she did not go to the window, the people would come
up to her.

The queen dropped in a fainting-fit; and the brute left the room. The
Princess Elizabeth and Clery lifted the queen into an arm-chair; and
Louis helped his sister to try to revive their mother. He put his arms
about her neck, and his tears fell upon her face. When she revived,
they were glad to see her shed tears. They all went into the Princess
Elizabeth's room, where the noise from without was less heard. There
the queen stood, silent and motionless, and apparently unaware of all
that was said and done in the room. Yet this was the time chosen by a
messenger from the mayor for settling some accounts with the king. This
man, not understanding the queen's misery, thought, when he saw her lost
and motionless, that she remained standing out of respect to him!

The noise continued for two hours; and it is believed that the mob would
have burst the doors, and murdered the family, if an officer of the
magistrates had not fastened a tricolor ribbon across the great gate,--a
symbol which the people always respected. This officer made Clery pay,
out of the king's money, for this ribbon, which cost somewhat less than
two shillings.

The queen had not slept the night before; this night, her daughter and
sister heard her sobs the whole night through, while the continual roll
of the distant drums prepared them for new horrors. Nothing more
occurred to alarm them, however, for some weeks; and it was long before
they knew that t