virtues of Louis XVI., was his friend, and ready to die for him; three brave grenadiers of the battalion of the faubourg St. Martin, Lecrosnier, Bridau, and Gosse, who alone remained at their post of the interior on the general defection, and ready to protect the king with their bayonets, men of the people, strangers at court, rallied round him by the sole sentiment of duty and affection, only defending the man in the king.

At the moment the king entered this apartment, the doors of the adjacent room, called the Salle des Nobles, were dashed in by the blows of the assailants.  The king rushed forward to meet the danger.  The door-panels fell at his feet, lance heads, iron-shod sticks, spikes were thrust through the opening.  Cries of fury, oaths, imprecations accompanied the blows of the axe.  The king, in a firm voice, ordered two devoted valets de chambre, who accompanied him, Hue, and de Marchais, to open the doors.  “What have I to fear in the midst of my people?” said the prince, boldly advancing towards the assailants.

These words, his advancing step, the serenity of his brow, the respect of so many ages for the sacred person of the king, suspended the impetuosity of the ringleaders, and they appeared to hesitate in crossing the threshold they had burst open.  During this doubtful moment, the Marshal de Mouchy, Acloque, the three grenadiers and two servants, made the king retreat a few paces, and then placed themselves between him and the populace.  The grenadiers presented their bayonets, and for a moment kept the crowd at bay.  But the increasing mob pushed forward the first ranks.  The first who pressed in was a man in rags, with naked arms, haggard eyes, and foaming at the mouth.  “Where is the veto?” he said, thrusting in the direction of the king’s breast a long stick with an iron dart at the end.  One of the grenadiers pressed down this stick with his bayonet, and thrust aside the arm of this infuriated creature.  The brigand fell at the feet of the citizen, and this act of energy imposed on his companions, and they trampled upon the man as he lay.  Pikes, hatchets, and knives were lowered or withdrawn.  The majesty of royalty resumed its empire for a moment, and this mob restrained itself at a certain distance from the king, in an attitude rather of brutal curiosity than of ferocity.

XIX.

Several officers of the National Guard, roused by the report of the king’s danger, had hastened to join the brave grenadiers, and made a space round Louis XVI.  The king, who had but one thought, which was to keep the people away from the apartment in which he had left the queen, ordered the door of the Salle de Conseil to be closed behind him.  He was followed by the multitude into the salon of the OEil de Boeuf, under pretence that this apartment, from its extent, would allow a greater quantity of citizens to see and speak with him.  He reached the room surrounded by a vast and turbulent crowd, and was happy at finding that only himself was exposed to blows from weapons of all kinds, which thousands of hands brandished over his head; but as he turned his head he saw his sister, Madame Elizabeth, who extended her arms, and was anxious to rush towards him.