But the very fact that the National Guard was there with its commander showed that this was no ordinary assault. There was purpose behind it; and if the purpose of the women was to kill me, that of the Guards was to take the King to Paris.

Mist had fallen over the town; it seeped into the chateau; it hung in patches like grey ghosts. The marchers now surrounded us. I could hear their chanting: “Du pain. Du pain.”

Then I heard my name. They wanted the Queen. They wanted her head on a pike. They were going to fight over my body. They would make cockades of my entrails. They would tear out my heart and carry it to Paris.

They would slit my throat with their butchers’ knives; they would ram the mouldy bread they had been forced to eat down my throat and make me eat it before they strangled me.

I tried to think of my mother, who bad always told me that I must never be afraid of death. When it came I must welcome it for it was the end of all earthly sorrows. Oh my mother, I thought, how I rejoice that you did not live to see this day.

I thought of my children. They would surely not harm them. Oh God, what would become of us?

The King’s calmness was a help to us all. He refused to believe that his good people would harm any of us. They would not even harm me, for they would know how that would grieve him. And when they said they would send a deputation of women to par ky with him he declared himself very happy to receive them.

Five of the women were chosen to speak to the King and tell him of their grievances. This cheered us greatly, for it seemed a reasonable arrangement.

The women were brought to the King, and they chose for their spokeswoman Louison Chabry, a flower-girl of outstanding beauty, who certainly looked well nourished, so it was evident that all the people of Paris were not starving. I guessed her to be a bold creature, but brought face to face with the courteous manners of the King she was bewildered and tongue-tied. Even Louis, who was so unlike his grandfather, bad inherited a little of that aura which surrounded his ancestors, and bold Louison suddenly realised that she. was in the presence of royalty, and could only goggle with amazement and murmur: “Du pain. Sire.” Perhaps the march in the rain had been too much for her, perhaps she was overcome by excitement, but she fainted and would have fallen if the King had not caught her.

The King called his doctor and the girl was revived. Then he talked to her of her troubles, and all she could do was look at him with round eyes of wonder and murmur: Yes, Sire. No, Sire. “

If only they had all been as easy to handle as Louison I He told her that he regarded himself as the little father of his people and that his one desire was to make them happy and see them well fed. Clearly she believed him and was ready to change her revolutionary ideas and become a loyal subject without more ado. And when she left, Louis kissed her with fervour. It was the first time I ever saw him kiss a woman with relish. He even joked and said that the kiss made it well worth the trouble. Well worth the trouble ! I thought. Of having a howling mob at our gates? Of losing the crown?

There were times when I believed his lethargy was a physical disability. Could any normal man be so calm in the face of such unprecedented disaster?

Louison returned to her friends. How her account of her interview was received no one can imagine. Meanwhile night was falling and the women took off their skirts—as they said, to dry them—and mingled with the soldiers who were supposed to be guarding the chateau.

The uneasy day had passed into uneasy night.

Saint-Priest and Axel wanted immediate action. As they saw it, it was folly to stay.

Louis began to see that we should leave for Rambouillet-not only myself and the children but himself and the rest of the family.

He took my hand and said: “You are right that we should not be parted.

We will go together. “

I hurried into the children’s apartments.

“We are leaving in half an hour,” I told Madame de Tourzel.

“Get the children ready But even as I spoke, one of the King’s servants came to tell me that the escape was now impossible, for the crowds were in the stables and they would not allow the carriages to leave.

I could have wept. Once more we had hesitated and lost.

I told Madame de Tourzel not to disturb the children and I went back to my husband’s apartments. Axel was beside me. He could no longer restrain himself; he gripped my band and said: “You must give me an order that I may take horses from the stables. I may need them to defend you.”

I shook my head.

“You must not risk your life for me,” I told him.

“For what else Tor the King,” I suggested. And I added, trying to soothe the anguish he showed so dearly he was feeling: “I am not afraid. My mother taught me not to fear death. If it has come for me I will accept it with fortitude, I believe.”

He turned away. He was determined to save me. But how could one man’s love save me from those howling men and women who were bent on my destruction?

La Fayette arrived at Versailles about midnight, and stationing his men in the Place dAmes he came to the Palace to see the King.

He entered in a theatrical way. I often wondered whether Monsieur de La Fayette saw himself as the hero of the Revolution who would bring about the reforms he believed the country needed with the niirmnimi of violence. He made a grandiloquent speech about serving the King and bringing his own head to save that of His Majesty, whereupon Louis replied that the General must never doubt that he was always pleased to see him and his good people of Paris. He begged the General would tell them this.

The General asked that those guards who had deserted their posts and gone to the National Guard a few weeks before should be allowed to resume their old dudes. It would be a gesture of trust.

What were gestures of trust with those people down there? Yet I believed that both Louis and La Fayette believed in it.

The King took my hand and kissed it.

You are exhausted. It has been a tiring day. Go to bed and get some sleep now. Our good Monsieur de La Fayette will see that all is well.”

La Fayette bowed.

“Your Majesties need have no anxiety,” he said.

“The people have promised that they will remain calm throughout the night.”

I went to my bedchamber and sank on to my bed. It was true. The events of this day had left me exhausted.

I was awakened just before dawn by unfamiliar sounds. I started’ up in bed and peered into the darkness. I heard the voices again—coarse, crude voices. Whence did they come? I rang the bell and one of my women came in. She must have been near—which surprised me, for I had told them not to sleep in my room but to go to their own beds.

“Whose voices are those?” I asked.

“The women of Paris, Madame. They are wandering about on the terrace.

There is nothing to fear. Monsieur de La Fayette has given his word.”

I nodded and went back to sleep. It seemed a short while afterwards when I was awakened by the same woman and another standing by my bedside. The room seemed full of shouting voices.

“Madame—quickly I You must dress! They are invading the chateau! They are close….”

I leaped out of bed. Madame Thiebaut, Madame Campan’s sister, was there. She was thrusting shoes on my feet and trying to wrap a robe about me. Then I heard the voices close:

“This way. We’ll get her. This is her apartment. I’ll cut her heart out myself.”

“No—no, that honour’s for me.”

“Cone quickly,” cried Madame Thiebaut.

“There is no time to dress.

They are almost upon us. “

“The King’s apartment …” I stammered.

“The children They were dragging me through the narrow corridor to wards the Oeil de Boeuf. The door was locked. It was the first time I had ever known it locked and I was seized with a violent horror because I knew from the nearness of voices that the intruders were already in my bedroom.

Madame Thiebaut was banging on the door.

“Open open for God’s sake!

For the Queen’s sake . , open! “

I heard the shouts.

“She’s fooled us. She’s gone. Where is she? We’ll find her.”

“Oh God,” I prayed.

“Help me to be brave. This is the moment. This is death horrible death.”

I was hammering on the door and suddenly it was opened and we fell into the Oett de Boeuf. The page who had opened it locked it again and we sped across to the King’s apartments. I was sobbing with terror.

Death I could face, but not violent, obscene death at the hands of those savages.

“The King!” I cried.

“He is going to your bedchamber to find you,” I was told.

“But they are there!”

“He has gone by means of the secret corridor under the Oeil de Boeuf.”

It was the secret way he had come when people used to watch his visits to my bedchamber and snigger over them. How fortunate that I had had that secret way made!

But what would happen to him? Would he be safe? They were crying for my blood, not his.

“The children …” I began. And then Madame de Tour-zei came in leading them, hastily snatched from their beds, robes over their sleeping clothes.

They ran to me and I embraced them; I held them to me as though I would never let them go. Then the King came in calm, almost unhurried.

“They are in your bedroom,” he said, ‘despoiling the room. “

I had a horrible vision of them slashing the bed which was still warm, pulling down the hangings, snatching up my treasures.