On receiving news of this theft, the five gentlemen present hastened
to lay all the gold and notes that they carried about them on the
table before they withdrew. But Marie Antoinette had noticed this.
"Gentlemen," she said, with thanks and deep feeling, "gentlemen,
keep your money; you will want it more than we, for you will, I
trust, live longer." [Footnote: The queen's own words.--See
"Beauehesne," vol. i., p. 806.]
Death had no longer any terrors for the queen, for she had too often
looked him in the eye of late to be afraid. She had with joy often
seen him take away her faithful servants and friends. Death would
have been lighter to bear than the railings and abuse which she had
to experience upon her walks from the Logograph's reporters' seat to
the rooms in the Convent des Feuillants. On one of these walks she
saw in the garden some respectably dressed people standing and
looking without hurling insults at her.--Full of gratitude, the
queen smiled and bowed to them. On this, one of the men shouted:
"You needn't take the trouble to shake your head so gracefully, for
you won't have it much longer!"
"I would the man were right!" said Marie Antoinette softly, going on
to the hall of the Assembly to hear the representatives of the
nation discuss the question whether the Swiss guards, who had
undertaken to defend the royal family with weapons in their hands,
should not be condemned to death as traitors to the French nation.
Pages:
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509