But those who are praying and weeping
have withdrawn to the solitude of their own apartments, and only God
can see their tears and hear their cries. The eyes which witnessed
the queen in this last drive were not allowed to shed a tear; the
words which followed her on her last way could express no
compassion.
All Paris knew the hour of the execution, and the people were ready
to witness it. On the streets, at the windows, on the roofs, immense
masses had congregated, and the whole Place de la Revolution (now
the Place de la Concorde) was filled with a dark, surging crowd.
And now the drums of the guards stationed before the Conciergerie
began to beat. The great white horse, (which drew the car in which
the queen sat, side by side with the priest, and facing backward,)
was driven forward by a man who was upon his back. Behind Marie
Antoinette were Samson and his assistants.
The queen was pale, all the blood had left her cheeks and lips, but
her eyes were red! Poor queen, she bore even then the marks of much
weeping! But she could shed no tears then! Not a single one obscured
her eye as her look ranged, gravely and calmly, over the mass, up
the houses to the very roofs, then slowly down, and then away over
the boundless sea of human faces.
Her face was as cold and grave as her eyes, her lips were firmly
compressed; not a quiver betrayed whether she was suffering, and
whether she shrank from the thousand and ten thousand scornful and
curious looks which were fixed upon her.
Pages:
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623