"Here we are installed in the Tuileries, and have slept, while we
yesterday were thinking we were lost, and that only death could give
us rest and peace again."
"It was a fearful day," said Madame de Campan, with a sigh, "but
your majesty went through it like a heroine."
"Ah, Campan," said the queen, sadly, "I have not the ambition to
want to be a heroine, and I should be very thankful if it were
allowed me from this time on to be a wife and mother, if it is no
longer allowed me to be a queen."
At this instant the door opened; the little dauphin, followed by his
teacher, the Abbe Davout, ran in and flew with extended arms to
Marie Antoinette.
"Oh, mamma queen!" cried he, with winning voice, "let us go back
again to our beautiful palace; it is dreadful here in this great,
dark house."
"Hush, my child, hush!" said the queen, pressing the boy close to
her. "You must not say so; you must accustom yourself to be
contented everywhere."
"Mamma queen," whispered the child, tenderly nestling close to his
mother, "it is true it is dreadful here, but I will always say it so
low that nobody except you can hear. But tell me, who owns this
hateful house? And why do we want to stay here, when we have such a
fine palace and a beautiful garden in Versailles?"
"My son," answered the queen with a sigh, "this house belongs to us,
and it is a beautiful and famous palace.
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