'
"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 sea in its fury; the National Guards, lining every
side, could not answer for the center; there were fire-arms, and men
blind with rage. Lafayette's conduct was admirable; for that trembling
woman, he risked his popularity, his destiny, his very life; he appeared
with her on the balcony, and kissed her hand.
"The crowd felt all that; the emotion was unanimous. They saw there the
woman and the mother, nothing more. 'Oh! how beautiful she is! What! is
that the Queen? How she fondles her children!'"
The King, overcome by dread, was forced to agree to the demand of the
people that he go to Paris.
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