They were permitted to close the doors of their rooms again,
although armed sentries still stood before them.
There were even some weeks and months in this year 1791, when it
appeared as if the exasperated spirits would be pacified, and the
throne be reestablished with a portion of its old dignity. The king
had, in a certain manner, received forgiveness from the National
Assembly, while accepting the constitution and swearing--as indeed
he could but swear, all power having been taken from him, and he
being a mere lay-figure--that would control all his actions, and
govern according to the expressed will of the National Assembly.
But the king, in order to make peace with his people, had even made
this sacrifice, and accepted the constitution. The people seemed
grateful to him for this, and appeared to be willing to return to
more friendly relations. The queen was no longer insulted with
contemptuous cries when she appeared in the garden of the Tuileries,
or in the Bois de Boulogne, and it even began to be the fashion to
speak about the dauphin as a miracle of loveliness and beauty, and
to go to the Tuileries to see him working in his garden.
This garden of the dauphin was in the immediate neighborhood of the
palace, at the end of the terrace on the river-side; it was
surrounded with a high wire fence, and close by stood the little
pavilion where dwelt Abbe Davout, the teacher of the dauphin.
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