All our party were either killed or wounded.  For the last half hour we had not a hundred men able to pull a trigger against a fire from the streets, from windows, and from house tops, on every side of the squares.  That any one of us escaped from the showers of bullets is a miracle.  My own escape was the merest chance.  On the first rush of the crowd into the hall, I happened to come in contact with one of the leaders of the party, a horrid-looking ruffian in a red cap, who roared out that he had marked me for bringing down the citizen climber up the belfry.  The fellow fired his pistol so close to my face that it scorched me.  In the agony of the pain I rushed on him; he drew his sabre and attempted to cut me down; but my sword was already out, and I anticipated him by a blow which finished his patriotism, at least in this world.  In the next moment, I was trampled down, and we fell together.”

I can of course offer but an imperfect transcript of the brave guardsman’s narrative; seconded as it was by an intelligent countenance, and that national vividness of voice and gesture which often tell so much more than words.  But, to describe its effect on his auditory is impossible.  Every countenance was riveted on him, every change of those extraordinary scenes was marked by a new expression of every face round the table.  Sighs and tears, wringing hands, and eyes turned on heaven, were universal evidences of the interest excited by his fearful detail.  Yet, unused as I was to this quick emotion among my own sober countrymen, I could scarcely wonder even at its wildness.  They were listening to the fate of all that belonged to them by affection, loyalty, hope, and possession, on this side of the grave.  Every hour was big with the destinies of their king, their relations, and their country.  On the events happening, even at the moment, depended, whether a deluge of blood might not roll over France, whether flame might not be devouring their ancient castles, whether they might not be doomed to mendicancy in a strange land, wanderers through the earth, without a spot whereon to lay their head, fugitives forever.  Yet the anxiety for those left behind was of a still deeper dye; the loved, the familiar, the honoured, all involved in a tide of calamity, irresistible by human strength or skill.—­All so near, yet all so lost; like the crew of some noble ship hopelessly struggling with the winds and waves, within sight of the shore, within reach almost of the very voices of their friends, yet at the mercy of a tremendous element which forbade their ever treading on firm ground.

But there was still much to tell; the fate of the royal family was the general question; and the remainder of the melancholy tale was given with manly sensibility.