ve up the hopeless task and flee to escape
being himself engulfed.

A wretchedly planned attempt at the escape of the royal family
aggravated the situation. They were recognized at Varennes, brought
back with great indignity, and placed under closer surveillance than
before. On the 10th of August, 1792, the mob attacked the Tuileries.
The royal family fled to the National Assembly for protection, while
their Swiss guards vainly defended the palace with their lives.

This was the end of the monarchy. Louis, the brave queen and her
children, and Princess Elizabeth, sister of the king, were removed from
the Assembly to the prison in "The Temple," and the National Convention
formally declared France a republic.

The grim prison to which they were taken, with its central square tower
flanked by four round towers, had stood since the time of Philip
Augustus. It was built for the Knights Templar, and was chateau,
fortress, prison, all in one, and was the home of the grand master and
those others who were burned when Philip IV. ruthlessly destroyed the
order. The central tower, one hundred and fifty feet high, had four
stories. The king and the dauphin were imprisoned in the second story,
and the queen, her young daughter, and the Princess Elizabeth in the
story above.

The power swiftly passed from Girondists to Jacobins, and a
Revolutionary Tribunal was created in charge of the terrible
triumvirate--Robespierre, Marat, and Danton.

An awful travesty upon a court of justice was established in that
historic hall in the Palais de Justice. Its walls, which had looked
down upon generations of Merovingian, Carlovingian, and Capetian kings,
now beheld the condemnation of the most innocent and well-intentioned
of all the kings of France.

The king was arraigned at this court upon the charge of treason,
convicted, and condemned to die on the 21st of January, 1793. He was
allowed to embrace for the last time his adored wife and children. At
the scaffold he tried to speak a last word to his people. The drums
were ordered to drown his voice, and an attendant priest uttered the
words, "_Fils de Saint Louis, montez au ciel_!"--Son of Saint Louis,
ascend to heaven!--and all was over. The kindest-hearted, most
inoffensive gentleman in Europe had expiated the crimes of his
ancestors.

More and more furious swept the torrent, gathering to itself all that
was vile and outcast. Where were the pale-faced, determined patriots