The royal family drew back and entered the apartment again, where
they were received by the pale, trembling, speechless, weeping
courtiers and servants.
But the mob below were not pacified. They appeared as though they
were determined to give laws to the king and queen, and demand
obedience from them.
"The queen! we will see the queen!" was the cry again and again.
"The queen shall show herself!"
"Well, be it so!" cried Marie Antoinette, with cool decision, and,
pressing through the courtiers, who wanted to restrain her, and even
impatiently thrusting back the king, who implored her not to go, she
stepped out upon the balcony. Alone, without any one to accompany
her, and having only the protection which the lion-tamer has when he
enters the cage of the fierce monsters--the look of the eye and the
commanding mien!
And the lion appeared to be subdued; his fearful roar suddenly
ceased, and in astonishment all these thousands gazed up at the
queen, the daughter of the Caesars, standing above in proud
composure, her arms folded upon her breast, and looking down with
steady eye into the yawning and raging abyss.
The people, overcome by this royal composure, broke into loud shouts
of applause, and, during the continuance of these thousand-voiced
bravos, the queen, with a proud smile upon her lips, stepped back
from the balcony into the chamber.
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