"Ah! my child, my dear child," said she, softly, "you have to-day,
for the first time, made your entry into Paris, and heard the
acclamations of the people. May you, so long as you live, always be
the recipient of kindly greetings, and never again hear such words
as that dreadful man spoke to us to-day!"
She pressed the little Duke of Normandy closely to her heart, and
quite forgot that she was all this while in the carriage; that near
the open portal the hostlers and lackeys were awaiting in a
respectful posture the dismounting of the queen; that the drums were
all the while beating, and that the guards were standing before the
gates in the fixed attitude of presenting arms.
The Duchess de Polignac ventured to suggest in softly-spoken words
the necessity of dismounting, and the queen, with her little boy in
her arms, sprang lightly and spiritedly, without accepting the
assistance of the master of the grooms, out of the carriage, smiling
cheerily, greeting the assembled chamberlains as she passed by,
hurried into the palace and ran up the great marble staircase. The
Duchess de Polignac made haste to follow her, while the Princess
Therese and the dauphin were received by their dames of honor and
led into their respective apartments. The Norman nurse, shaking her
head, hurried after the queen, and the chamberlains and both the
maids of honor, shaking their heads, too, followed her into the
great ante-chamber.
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