"What does Paris want? Does it mean to threaten the National
Assembly? Explain yourself, for you see I do not understand you."
"Your majesty, the people of Paris hunger. The bakers have made no
bread, for they assert that there is no more meal. The enemies of
the realm have taken advantage of the excitement to stir up the
masses and even the women. The people are hungry; the people are
coming to Versailles to ask the king for bread. Ten thousand women
are on the road to Versailles, accompanied by armed bodies of men."
"Let us hasten, sir, I must go to my children," said the queen, and
with quick steps she went forward. Not a glance back, not a word of
farewell to the loved plantation of Trianon, and yet it is the last
time that Marie Antoinette is to look upon it. She will never return
hither, she turns her back forever upon Trianon.
With flying steps she hurries on; Toulan does not venture to address
her, and she has perhaps entirely forgotten his presence. She does
not know that a faithful one is near her; she only knows that her
children are in Versailles, and that she must go to them to protect
them, and to the king too, to die with him, if it must be.
When they were not far from the great mall of the park at
Versailles, the Count de St. Priest came running, and his frightened
looks and pale face confirmed the news that Mr.
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