She
knew that Potion, Danton, and Manuel, three raving republicans, were
at the head, and that their emissaries were empowered to stir up the
suburbs of the city. She knew, too, that the monsters from
Marseilles, who had been active on the 20th of June, were boasting
that they were going to repeat the deeds of that day on a greater
scale.
Nor was it unknown to her that more than half the deputies in the
National Assembly belonged to the Jacobin party, and that they were
looking for an opportunity to strike a fresh blow at royalty. Very
often, when at dead of night Marie Antoinette heard the noisy chorus
of the rioters from Marseilles singing beneath her windows,
"Allons, enfants de la patrie," or the Parisians chanting the "Qa
ira, fa ira!" she sprang from her bed (she now never disrobed
herself on retiring), hurried to the beds of her children to see
that they were not in danger, or called her maids and commanded them
to light the candles, that they might at least see the danger which
threatened.
At last, on the night of the 9th of August, the long-feared terror
arrived.
A gun fired in the court of the Tuileries announced its advent.
Marie Antoinette sprang from her bed, and sent her waiting-maid to
the king to waken him. The king had already risen; his ministers and
a few tried friends were now with him.
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