easily found them.  The queen came in with speed from her garden, which she was destined never to behold again; the king hastened hack from his coverts; and by the time that they returned, the Count de St. Priest, the Minister of the Household, had their carriages ready for them to retire to Rambouillet, and he earnestly pressed the adoption of such a course.  Louis, as usual, could not make up his mind.  He sat in his chair, repeating that it was a moment to think seriously.  “Rather,” said Marie Antoinette, “say that it is a time to act promptly.”  He would gladly have had her depart with her children, but she refused to leave him, declaring that her place was by his side; that, as the daughter of Maria Teresa, she did not fear death; and after a time he changed his mind and ceased to wish even her to retire, clinging to his old conviction that conciliation was always possible.  He believed that he had won over even the worst of the mob, and that all danger was past.

Versailles witnessed a strange scene that morning.  The moment that the mob reached the town, they forced their way into the Assembly Hall, where Maillard, as their spokesman, after terrifying the members with ferocious threats against the whole body of the Nobles, demanded that the Assembly should send a deputation to the king to represent to him the distress of the people, and that a party of the women should accompany it.  Louis consented to receive them, and when they reached the palace, the women, disorderly and ferocious as they were, were so awed by the magnificence and pomp which they beheld, and by the actual presence of the king and queen, that they could only summon up a few modest and humble words of petition, and one, a young and pretty girl of seventeen, fainted with the excitement.  One of the princesses brought her a glass of water:  she recovered, and, as she knelt to kiss the king’s hand, Louis kissed her himself, and, transported by his affability, she and her companions quit the apartment, uttering loud cheers for the king and queen.  But this had not been the impression which their leaders had intended them to receive; and, when they reached the streets, their new-born loyalty so exasperated their comrades that the soldiers had some difficulty in saving them from their fury.

Meanwhile, the mob increased every hour.  They occupied the court-yard of the palace, roaring out ferocious threats, the most sanguinary of which were directed against the queen.  The President of the Assembly moved that the members should adjourn and repair to the palace for the protection of the royal family, but Mirabeau resisted the proposal, and procured its rejection; and when a large party of the members went, as individuals, to place their services at the king’s disposal, he mingled with the rioters, tampering with the soldiers, and urging them to espouse what he called the cause of the people.  As it grew dark, the crowd grew more and more tumultuous and violent.  The Body-guard, who were all gentlemen,