of the Convention, but because I can be compelled to obey it.”  He then followed the Mayor to a carriage which waited, with a numerous escort, at the gate of the Temple.  The family left behind were overwhelmed with grief and apprehension.  “It is impossible to describe the anxiety we suffered,” says Madame Royale.  “My mother used every endeavour with the officer who guarded her to discover what was passing; it was the first time she had condescended to question any of these men.  He would tell her nothing.”

Trial of the King.—­Parting of the Royal Family.—­Execution.

The crowd was immense as, on the morning of the 11th December, 1792, Louis XVI. was driven slowly from the Temple to the Convention, escorted by cavalry, infantry, and artillery.  Paris looked like an armed camp:  all the posts were doubled; the muster-roll of the National Guard was called over every hour; a picket of two hundred men watched in the court of each of the right sections; a reserve with cannon was stationed at the Tuileries, and strong detachments patroled the streets and cleared the road of all loiterers.  The trees that lined the boulevards, the doors and windows of the houses, were alive with gazers, and all eyes were fixed on the King.  He was much changed since his people last beheld him.  The beard he had been compelled to grow after his razors were taken from him covered cheeks, lips, and chin with light-coloured hair, which concealed the melancholy expression of his mouth; he had become thin, and his garments hung loosely on him; but his manner was perfectly collected and calm, and he recognised and named to the Mayor the various quarters through which he passed.  On arriving at the Feuillans he was taken to a room to await the orders of the Assembly.

It was about half-past two when the King appeared at the bar.  The Mayor and Generaux Santerre and Wittengoff were at his side.  Profound silence pervaded the Assembly.  All were touched by the King’s dignity and the composure of his looks under so great a reverse of fortune.  By nature he had been formed rather to endure calamity with patience than to contend against it with energy.  The approach of death could not disturb his serenity.

“Louis, you may be seated,” said Barere.  “Answer the questions that shall be put to you.”  The King seated himself and listened to the reading of the ‘acte enonciatif’, article by article.  All the faults of the Court were there enumerated and imputed to Louis XVI. personally.  He was charged with the interruption of the sittings of the 20th of June, 1789, with the Bed of Justice held on the 23d of the same month, the aristocratic conspiracy thwarted by the insurrection of the 14th of July, the entertainment of the Life Guards, the insults offered to the national cockade, the refusal to sanction the Declaration of Rights, as well as several constitutional articles; lastly, all the facts which indicated a new conspiracy in October, and which