“Mirabeau, whose immense head and gross figure could not be mistaken, is said to have been the first among the mob to have sonorously chanted, ’To Paris!’ His myrmidons echoed and re-echoed the cry upon the signal.  He then hastened to the Assembly to contravene any measures the King might ask in opposition.  The riots increasing, the Queen said to His Majesty: 

“’Oh, Sire! why am I not animated with the courage of Maria Theresa?  Let me go with my children to the National Assembly, as she did to the Hungarian Senate, with my Imperial brother, Joseph, in her arms and Leopold in her womb, when Charles the Seventh of Bavaria had deprived her of all her German dominions, and she had already written to the Duchesse de Lorraine to prepare her an asylum, not knowing where she should be delivered of the precious charge she was then bearing; but I, like the mother of the Gracchi, like Cornelia, more esteemed for my birth than for my marriage, am the wife of the King of France, and I see we shall be murdered in our beds for the want of our own exertions!’

“The King remained as if paralysed and stupefied, and made no answer.  The Princesse Elizabeth then threw herself at the Queen’s feet, imploring her to consent to go to Paris.

“‘To Paris!’ exclaimed Her Majesty.

“‘Yes, Madame,’ said the King.  ’I will put an end to these horrors; and tell the people so.’

“On this, without waiting for the Queen’s answer, he opened the balcony, and told the populace he was ready to depart with his family.

“This sudden change caused a change equally sudden in the rabble mob.  All shouted, ‘Vive le roi!  Vive la nation!’

“Re-entering the room from the window, the King said, ’It is done.  This affair will soon be terminated.’

“‘And with it,’ said the Queen, ‘the monarchy!’

“’Better that, Madame, than running the risk, as I did some hours since, of seeing you and my children sacrificed!’

“’That, Sire, will be the consequence of our not having left Versailles.  Whatever you determine, it is my duty to obey.  As to myself, I am resigned to my fate.’  On this she burst into a flood of tears.  ’I only feel for your humiliated state, and for the safety of our children.’

“The Royal Family departed without having consulted any of the Ministers, military or civil, or the National Assembly, by whom they were followed.

“Scarcely had they arrived at Paris when the Queen recollected that she had taken with her no change of dress, either for herself or her children, and they were obliged to ask permission of the National Assembly to allow them to send for their different wardrobes.

“What a situation for an absolute King and Queen, which, but a few hours previous, they had been!

“I now took up my residence with Their Majesties at the Tuileries,—­that odious Tuileries, which I can not name but with horror, where the malignant spirit of rebellion has, perhaps, dragged us to an untimely death!