She
thought of the hurricane which had made the earth shake and turn up
trees by their roots, on the first night which the dauphin had
passed in Versailles. She thought too of the dreadful misfortune
which on the next day happened to hundreds of men at the fireworks
in Paris, and cost them their lives. She recalled the moment at the
coronation when the king caught up the crown which the papal nuncio
was just on the point of placing on his head, and said at the same
time,
"It pricks me." [Footnote: Historical.]And now it seemed to her to
be a new, dreadful reason for alarm, that the scene of horror, which
she had just passed through, should take place in the dying-chamber
of that king to whom France owed her glory and her greatness.
"We are lost, lost!" she whispered to herself. "Nothing can save us.
There is the scaffold!"
"With a silent gesture, and a gentle inclination of her head, the
queen took her leave of all present, and returned to her own
apartments, which were now guarded by Lafayette's soldiers, and
which now conveyed no hint of the scene of horror which had
transpired there a few hours before.
Some hours later two cannon were discharged upon the great square
before the palace. They announced to the city of Versailles that the
king, the queen, and their children, had just left the proud palace-
-were then leaving the solitary residence at Versailles--never to
return!
From the lofty tower of the church of St.
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