en asked, that he had seen before an
officer who came to guard them for the first time. The officer asked
him repeatedly where he had seen him, but Louis would not say. At last,
he whispered to his mother, "It was when we were coming back from
Varennes." When any guard more civil than the rest appeared on duty,
Louis always ran with the good news to the queen. One day, a
stone-mason was employed in making holes in the doorway of the outer
room, in which large bolts were to be fixed. While the man was at
breakfast, Louis amused himself with his tools. This was an opportunity
for the king to gratify his well-known taste; and he began to work with
the mallet and chisel, to show his boy the way. The mason came back,
and, moved by seeing the king so employed, said, "When you get out, you
will be able to say that you worked at your own bars."

"Ah!" said the king, "when and how shall I get out?" Louis burst out
a-crying; and the king, throwing down the tools, went into his chamber,
and paced up and down with long strides.

It appears that the king was touched with somewhat of the same
superstition of which the queen gave occasional tokens,--like many other
sufferers in a time of suspense. No one liked to refuse to play with
Louis when he wanted to play; so, one afternoon, when the king was very
sad, he consented to a game at nine-pins, because his boy asked him.
The Dauphin twice counted sixteen, and then lost the game. "Whenever I
get sixteen," exclaimed he, a little vexed, "I always lose the game."
The king, remembering that he was the sixteenth Louis, looked very
grave; and Clery thought his mind was superstitiously impressed by the
boy's words.

In the beginning of November a feverish complaint attacked the king, and
then the whole family in turn. The wife and sister of the king assisted
Clery to nurse him, and often made his bed with their own hands. Louis,
who had slept in the king's room since the partial separation of the
family, was the next attacked. Not all that the queen could say availed
to procure permission to remain with her child during the night. Clery,
however, never left him; and Louis had soon an opportunity of showing
that he was grateful.

Before the princesses had recovered, poor Clery was more ill, with
rheumatic fever, than any of them had been. He made a great effort to
rise and attend the king, the first day; but his master, seeing the
condition he was in, sent him to bed again,