“At length an opportunity seemed to offer of showing the true feeling of the court to the army.  The regiment of Flanders had come to take its tour of service at the palace, and the garde du corps had sent them an invitation to a grand military banquet.  There was nothing new, and could have been nothing suspicious, in the invitation; for it was the custom of the garde, on the arrival of any regiment at Versailles, as a commencement of mutual civility.  The regiment of Flanders was a distinguished corps—­but the whole army had been tampered with; and the experiment was for the first time a doubtful one.  As if to make it still more doubtful, the invitation was extended to the national guard of Versailles.”

Every eye was now fixed on the narrator, as she went on with increasing animation.

“Never was there a day of greater anxiety.  We were sure of the garde du corps; but treachery was roving through France, and the banquet might only produce a collision.  The entertainment, by being in the opera salon, was actually within the palace, and all the royal suite remained in the royal apartments, in fear and trembling, during the entire day.

“But as the night advanced, the intelligence, which was brought to us every five minutes from the salon, became more tranquillizing.  The coldness which had existed in the beginning between the garde and the troops of the line had vanished, and loyal healths, gay speeches, and charming songs succeeded.  At length a gallant young lieutenant of the garde, in a fit of noble enthusiasm, cried—­’We all are the soldiers of France—­we all are loyal, all are happy—­Why shall not our king witness our loyalty and our happiness?’ The tidings were instantly conveyed to the royal apartments.  The king rose—­the court followed.  We entered the salon.  Oh, that sight!—­so new, so touching, so indescribable!”

Her voice sank for a moment.  She recovered herself, and proceeded—­

“The queen leaned on the arm of the king, the dauphin and dauphiness followed; Madame Elizabeth, that saint on earth if ever there was one, headed the ladies of the court.  All rose at our entrance; we were received with one acclamation.  The sight is still before me.  I had seen all that was brilliant in the courts of Europe.  But this moment effaced them all.  The most splendid salle on earth, crowded with uniforms, all swords drawn and waving in the light, all countenances turned on the king, all one shout of triumph, loyalty, and joy!  Alas! alas! was it to be the last beat of the national heart?  Alas! alas! was it to be the last flash of the splendour of France; the dazzling illumination of the catafalque of the Bourbons; the bright burst of flame from the funeral pile of the monarchy?”

Her voice sank into silence; for the first time unbroken throughout the room.

At length, to relieve the pause, Mordecai expressed something of a hope that the royal family slept in peace, for that one night at least.