The minister for foreign affairs walked at his side.  The queen leaned on the arm of M. Dubouchage, the minister of marine, and with the other hand led the dauphin.  The Princess Elizabeth and the princess royal followed with another minister.  And thus, with the Princess de Lamballe, Madame de Tourzel, and one or two other ministers and attendants, the royal family left the palace of their ancestors, which only one of them was ever to behold again.  As they quit the saloon, moved down the stairs, and crossed the garden, their every step was one toward a downfall and a destruction which could never be retraced.  Marie Antoinette felt it to be so, and, as she reached the foot of the staircase, cast restless and anxious glances around, looking perhaps even then for any prospect of succor or of effectual resistance which might present itself.  One of the Swiss misunderstood her, and with rude fidelity endeavored to encourage her.  “Fear nothing, madame,” said he, “your majesty is surrounded by honest citizens.”  She laid her hand on her heart.  “I do fear nothing,” and passed on without another word.

As they crossed the garden the king broke the silence.  “How unusually early,” he remarked, “the leaves fall this year!” To those who heard him, the bareness which he remarked seemed an omen of the fate which awaited himself, about to be stripped of his royal dignity; perhaps even, like some superfluous crowder of the grove, to fall beneath the axe.  The Assembly had already been deliberating whether it should invite him to take refuge with them when they heard that he was approaching.  It was instantly voted that a deputation should be sent to meet him, which, after a few words of respectful salutation, fell in behind.  A vast crowd was collected outside the doors of the hall.  They hooted the king, and, still more bitterly, the queen, as they advanced.  “Down with Veto!” was the chief cry; but mingled with it were still more unmanly insults, invoking more especially death on all the women.  But the Guards kept the mob at a distance, though when they reached the hall the Jacobins made an effort to deprive them of that protection.  They declared that it was illegal for soldiers to enter the hall, as indeed it was; yet without them the princes must at the last moment have been exposed to all the fury of the mob.  At this critical moment Roederer showed both fidelity and presence of mind.  He implored the deputies to suspend the law which forbade the entrance of the troops, and, while the Jacobins were reviling him and his proposal, he pretended to suppose that it had been agreed to, and led forward a detachment of soldiers who cleared the way.  One grenadier look up the dauphin in his arms and carried him in; and, although the pressure of the crowd was extreme, at last the whole family were placed within the hall in such safety as the Assembly was able or disposed to afford them.