nterview which was allowed, he had taken the dauphin, "his dear
little Norman," on his knee, and had said to him, "My son, you have
heard what I have just said"--he had been causing them all to promise
never to think of avenging his death--"but, as oaths are something
more sacred still than words, swear, with your hands held up to
Heaven, that you will obey your father's dying injunction;" and, adds
his sister, who tells the story, "My brother, bursting into tears,
obeyed; and this most affecting goodness doubled our own grief." And
thus father and son parted, but not for long.

On the 1st of July the Committee of Public Safety passed a decree,
"That the son of Capet be separated from his mother, and committed to
the charge of a tutor, to be chosen by the Council General of the
Commune." The Convention sanctioned it, and it was carried into effect
two days later. About ten o'clock at night, when the young dauphin was
sleeping soundly in his bed, and the ex-queen and her sister were busy
mending clothes, while the princess read to them, six municipal guards
marched into the room and tore the child from his agonized mother.
They conveyed him to that part of the Tower which had formerly been
occupied by his father, where the "tutor" of the commune was in
waiting to receive him. This was no other than a fellow called Simon,
a shoemaker, who had never lost an opportunity of publicly insulting
the king, and who, through the influence of Marat and Robespierre, had
been appointed the instructor of his son at a salary of 500 francs a
month, on condition that he was never to leave his prisoner or quit
the Tower, on any pretence whatever.

On the first night, Simon found his new pupil disposed to be
unmanageable. The dauphin sat silently on the floor in a corner, and
not all his new master's threats could induce him to answer the
questions which were put to him. Madame Simon, although a terrible
virago, was likewise unsuccessful; and for two days the prince mourned
for his mother, and refused to taste food, only demanding to see the
law which separated him from her and kept them in prison. At the end
of the second day he found that he could not persist in exercising his
own will, and went to bed. In the morning his new master cried in his
elation, "Ha, ha! little Capet, I shall have to teach you to sing the
'Carmagole,' and to cry '_Vive la Republique!_' Ah! you are dumb, are
you?" and so from hour to hour he sneered at the miser