It was fortunate that you could spend them in solitude and secrecy,
and be able to finish your education, and it would be a great
blessing to you to be able to go on with your quiet studies for some
years longer. But your enemies had sought you without rest; they
were on your track, and had I left you there any longer, you would
have been found some day stabbed or shot in the park. The steward
informed me that all kinds of suspicious people had gathered in the
neighborhood of the palace and the garden, and I conjecture that
they were the emissaries of your enemies. On this I took you away
from that place, and have brought you here for your greater safety.
Now allow me one question. Do you know who your enemies are?"
"I think I know them," replied Louis Charles, with a sad smile. "My
enemies are the self-same men who brought my father and my mother to
the scaffold, destroyed the throne, and in its place gave Prance a
red cap. My enemies are the republicans, who now rule in this land,
and whose great object must, of course, be to put me out of the way,
for my life is their death! France will one day be tired of the red
cap, and will restore the throne to him to whom it belongs, so soon
as it is certain that he who is entitled to the crown, is living to
wear it."
"And who do you suppose is justified in wearing the crown of
France?"
"You ask as if you did not know that I am the only son and heir of
the murdered King of France.
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