The Queen could not join the King; she was in the council chamber, where she had been placed behind the great table to protect her, as much as possible, against the approach of the barbarians.  Preserving a noble and becoming demeanour in this dreadful situation, she held the Dauphin before her, seated upon the table.  Madame was at her side; the Princesse de Lamballe, the Princesse de Tarente, Madame de la Roche-Aymon, Madame de Tourzel, and Madame de Mackau surrounded her.  She had fixed a tricoloured cockade, which one of the National Guard had given her, upon her head.  The poor little Dauphin was, like the King, shrouded in an enormous red cap.  The horde passed in files before the table;

[One of the circumstances of the 20th of June which most vexed the King’s friends being that of his wearing the bonnet rouge nearly three hours, I ventured to ask him for some explanation of a fact so strikingly in contrast with the extraordinary intrepidity shown by his Majesty during that horrible day.  This was his answer:  “The cries of ’The nation for ever!’ violently increasing around me, and seeming to be addressed to me, I replied that the nation had not a warmer friend than myself.  Upon this an ill-looking man, making his way through the crowd, came up to me and said, rather roughly, ’Well, if you speak the truth, prove it by putting on this red cap.’  ‘I consent,’ replied I. One or two of them immediately came forward and placed the cap upon my hair, for it was too small for my head.  I was convinced, I knew not why, that his intention was merely to place the cap upon my head for a moment, and then to take it off again; and I was so completely taken up with what was passing before me that I did not feel whether the cap did or did not remain upon my hair.  I was so little aware of it that when I returned to my room I knew only from being told so that it was still there.  I was very much surprised to find it upon my head, and was the more vexed at it because I might have taken it off immediately without the smallest difficulty.  But I am satisfied that if I had hesitated to consent to its being placed upon my head the drunken fellow who offered it to me would have thrust his pike into my stomach.”—­“Memoirs of Bertrand de Molleville.”]

the sort of standards which they carried were symbols of the most atrocious barbarity.  There was one representing a gibbet, to which a dirty doll was suspended; the words “Marie Antoinette a la lanterne” were written beneath it.  Another was a board, to which a bullock’s heart was fastened, with “Heart of Louis XVI.” written round it.  And a third showed the horn of an ox, with an obscene inscription.

One of the most furious Jacobin women who marched with these wretches stopped to give vent to a thousand imprecations against the Queen.  Her Majesty asked whether she had ever seen her.  She replied that she had not.  Whether she had done her any, personal wrong?  Her answer was the same; but she added: