might
see him at meal-times, at least. Then they carried him off, crying
bitterly. He never again saw his mother, though she saw him by stealth.

It was not likely that her request about meeting him at meals would be
granted; for the very object of separating him was to put out of his
head all the ideas of princely power and authority of which the mind of
a royal child was likely to be full. The intention was to bring him up
with republican ideas and feelings, in order at once to make of him what
was then called "a good citizen," and to render him less an object of
hope and expectation to the foreign powers who already gave him the
royal titles, and led on their armies, as if to the rescue of a king,
while the French nation declared that royalty was abolished, and that
they had no king, and would have none. So this sickly, sad, helpless
little boy was taken by one of the party from the arms of his mother and
aunt, to be brought up in contempt of his family and rank, while the
other party were, all over Europe, giving him the title of Louis the
Seventeenth, and speaking with reverence of him, as if he sat upon a
throne. This unhappy child, called a king, wept without pause for two
whole days, begging every one he saw to take him to his mother. The
endeavour then was to make him forget her; but though they awed him so
that he soon did not dare to speak of her, or to weep, an incident
showed that he still pined for her. A report got abroad that he had
been seen in one of the public walks of Paris; and others said that he
was dead. Some members of the Convention were therefore sent to the
Temple, to ascertain the truth. Louis was led down to the garden to be
seen by them; and he immediately begged to be taken to his mother; but
was told that it was impossible.

Long and wearily did she pine for him. She heard of him frequently,
from one of the gaolers; but there was nothing to be told which could
cause her anything but grief: for those who had taken from her the
charge of her child, did not fulfil the duty they had assumed. She saw
this for herself. He often went to the leads; and the queen found a
chink in a wall at some distance, through which she could watch him as
he walked. Sometimes she waited many hours at this chink, in hopes of
his coming: and yet it might have been better for her not to have seen
him; for he altered sadly.

It was the duty of the authorities, if they meddled with the boy at all,
t