'save me and my children!' At length the door was opened,
and she rushed into the King's apartment.

"The crowd was knocking louder and louder to enter the _Oeil-de-boeuf_.
The guards barricaded the place, piling up benches, stools, and other
pieces of furniture; the lower panel was burst in. They expected nothing
but death; but suddenly the uproar ceased, and a kind clear voice
exclaimed: 'Open!' As they did not obey, the same voice repeated: 'Come,
open to us, body-guard; we have not forgotten that you men saved us
French Guards at Fontenoy.'

"It was indeed the French Guards, now become National Guards, with the
brave and generous Hoche, then a simple sergeant-major--it was the
people, who had come to save the nobility. They opened, threw themselves
into one another's arms, and wept.

"At that moment, the King, believing the passage forced, and mistaking
his saviors for his assassins, opened his door himself, by an impulse of
courageous humanity, saying to those without: 'Do not hurt my guards.'

"The danger was past, and the crowd dispersed; the thieves alone were
unwilling to be inactive. Wholly engaged in their own business, they
were pillaging and moving away the furniture. The grenadiers turned that
rabble out of the castle.

"Lafayette, awakened but too late, then arrived on horseback. He saw one
of the body-guards whom they had taken and dragged near the body of one
of those killed by the guards, in order to kill him by way of
retaliation. 'I have given my word to the King,' cried Lafayette, 'to
save his men. Cause my word to be respected.'

"He then entered the castle. Madame Adelaide, the King's aunt, went up
to him and embraced him: 'It is you,' cried she, 'who have saved us.' He
ran to the King's cabinet. Who would believe that etiquette still
subsisted? A grand officer stopped him for a moment, and then allowed
him to pass: 'Sir,' said he seriously, 'the King grants you _les grandes
entrees_.'

"The King showed himself at the balcony, and was welcomed with the
unanimous shout of 'God save the King.' 'Vive le Roi!'

"At that moment several voices raised a formidable shout: 'The Queen!'
The people wanted to see her in the balcony. She hesitated: 'What!' said
she, 'all alone?' 'Madame, be not afraid,' said Lafayette. She went,
but not alone, holding an admirable safeguard--in one hand her daughter,
in the other her son. The Court of Marble was terrible, in awful
commotion, like the