Taking the Bastile (53 page)

It was in fact Gilbert who was coming, bringing with him the untoward news which Charny had predicted. Although he had hurriedly alighted from his horse, although he had rapidly ascended the staircase, although the three agitated faces of the queen, Andre, and Charny were turned towards the door which led to this staircase, and by which the doctor ought to have entered the room, this door did not open. Suddenly, a door on the opposite side of the room was opened, and an officer came in.

‘Madame,’ said he, ‘Doctor Gilbert, who has come for the purpose of conversing with the king on important and urgent matters, demands to have the honour of being received by your majesty, the king having set out for Meudon an hour ago.’

‘Let him come in !’ said the queen, fixing on the door a

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look which was firm even to harshness, while Andre, as if naturally she sought to find a supporter in her husband, drew back and supported herself on the count’s arm.

Gilbert soon made his appearance on the threshold of the door.

GILBERT cast a glance on the several personages whom we have placed on .the stage, and advancing respectfully towards Marie Antoinette. ‘Will the queen permit me,’ said he, ‘in the absence of her august husband, to communicate to her the news of which I am the bearer?’

‘Speak, sir,’ said Marie Antoinette. ‘On seeing you coming at so rapid a pace, I summoned up all my fortitude, for I felt well assured that you were bringing me some fearful news.’

‘Would the queen have preferred that I should have allowed her to be surprised ? Forewarned, the queen, with that sound judgment, that elevated mind by which she is characterised, would advance to meet the danger; and then, perhaps the danger might retreat before her.’

‘Let us see, sir what is this danger?’

‘Madame, seven or eight thousand women have set out from Paris, and are coming armed to Versailles.’

‘Seven or eight thousand women?’ cried the queen, with an air of contempt.

‘Yes; but they will, most likely, have stopped on the way; and, perhaps, on arriving here, their numbers will amount to fifteen or twenty thousand.’

‘And for what purpose are they coming?’

‘They are hungry, madame, and they are coming to ask the king for bread.’

The queen turned towards Charny.

‘Alas 1 madame,’ said the count, ‘that which I predicted has now happened.’

‘What is to be done?’ asked Marie Antoinette.

‘The king should, in the first place, be informed of it,’ said Gilbert.

The queen turned quickly towards him.

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‘The king 1 oh 1 no !’ she cried, ‘what good purpose would it answer to expose him to such a meeting ? ‘

This cry burst forth from the heart of Marie Antoinette almost involuntarily. It was a convincing manifestation of the intrepidity of the queen, of her consciousness of possessing a firmness which was altogether personal to her, and, at the same time, of her consciousness of her husband’s weakness, which she ought not to have admitted even to herself. Charny replied at once to the queen and to Gilbert; he resumed all his empire, for he had made the sacrifice of his pride.

‘Madame,’ said he, ‘Monsieur Gilbert is right; it is necessary that the king should be informed of this occurrence. The king is still beloved; the king > will present himself to these women; he will harangue them, he will disarm them.’

‘But,’ observed the queen, ‘who will undertake to give this information to the King? The road between this and Meudon is no doubt already intercepted, and it would be a dangerous enterprise.’

‘The king is in the forest of Meudon? Your majesty will deign to consider me as a military man,’ said Charny unostentatiously; ‘a soldier, and one whose duty it is to expose his life’

And, having said these words, he did not wait for a reply; he listened not to the sigh which escaped the queen; but ran rapidly down the staircase, jumped upon one of the sfuards horses, and hastened towards Meudon, accompanied by two cavaliers.

He had scarcely disappeared, when a distant noise, which resembled the roaring of the waves in a ttorm, made the queen listen anxiously. This noise appeared to proceed from the farthest trees on the Pahs road, which, from the apartment in which the queen was, could be seen towering above the fog at some distance from the last houses of Versailles. The horizon soon became a? threatening to the eye as it had been to the ear; a hail shower began to chequer the dark gray haze. And yet, notwithstanding the threatening state of the heavens, crowds of persons were .entering Versailles. Messengers arrived continually at the palace. Every mesnger brought intelligence o< numerous columns being on their way from Pan*, and every one thought of the joys and the eaty triumphs of the preceding days; some of them feeling at heart a regret that was akin

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to rsaaorse, others an instinctive terror. The soldiers were anxious, and, looking at each other, slowly took up their arms. Like drunken people, who endeavour to shake off the effects of wine, the officers, demoralised by the visible uneasiness of their soldiers and the murmurs of the crowd, with difficulty breathed in this atmosphere, impregnated as it was with misfortunes which were about to be attributed to them. On their side, the bodyguards somewhere about three hundred men coldly mounted their horses, and with that hesitation which seizes men of the sword when they feel they have to deal with enemies whose mode of attack is unknown to them. What could they do against women who had set out threatening and with arms, but who had arrived disarmed and who could DO longer raise even their hands, so enervated were they with fatigue, so emaciated were they by hunger ? And yet, at all hazards, they formed themselves into line, drew their sabres, and waited.

At last, the women made their appearance : they had come by two roads. Half-way between Paris and Versailles, they had separated, one party coming by Saint Cloud, the other by Sevres. Before they separated, eight loaves had been divided among them; it was all that could be found at Sevres. Thirty-two pounds of bread for seven thousand persons 1 On arriving at Versailles they could scarcely drag themselves along. More than three-fourths of them had scattered their weapons along the road. Maillard had induced the remaining fourth to leave their arms in the first houses they came to in Versailles,

Then, on entering into the town, ‘Come, now,’ said he, ‘that they may not doubt that we are friends to royalty, let us sing, ” Vive Henri Quatre I ” ‘ And in a dying tone, and with voices that hadnot strength enough to ask for bread, they chanted the royal national air.

The astonishment was therefor* great at the palace when, instead of shouts and threats, they heard them singing th loyal air when above all. they saw the female choristers staggering, and these wretched women, leaning their haggard, pale, and livid faces, against the gilded railings. After a time, would now and then escape from these horribly fantastic groups lugubrious bowlings in the midst of these agonised faces, would appear eyes flashing lightnings. Also, from time to time, all these hands, abandoning the railings which sustained them, were

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thrust through the space between them, and stretched forth towards the palace. Some of them were open and trembling these were soliciting. Others were clenched and nervously agitated these were threatening. Oh 1 the picture was a gloomy one.

While waiting the return of Louis XVI., agitated, but firmly resolved, the queen gave orders for the defence of the palace. By degrees, the courtiers, the officers, and the high dignitaries of the state grouped themselves around her. In the midst of them she perceived M. de Saint Priest, the minister for Paris.

‘Go and inquire, sir,’ said she to him, ‘what it is these people want.’

M. de Saint Priest immediately went down the staircase, crossed the courtyard, and approached the railing.

‘What is it that you demand ?’ said he to the women.

‘ Bread 1 bread 1 bread I” simultaneously cried a thousand voices.

‘Bread 1’ replied M. de Saint Priest impatiently; ‘when you had but one master, you never were m want of bread. Now that you have twelve hundred, you see to what they have reduced you.’

And M. de Saint Priest withdrew amidst the threatening shouts of these famished creatures, giving strict orders that the gates should be kept closed. But a deputation advances, before which it is absolutely necessary that the gates should be thrown open. Maillard had presented himself to the National Assembly in the name of the women; he had succeeded in persuading them that the president with a deputation of twelve women should proceed to the palace to make a statement to the king of th position of affairs. At the moment when the deputation, with Mounier at its head, left the Assembly, the king returned to the palace at full gallop, entering it by the stable-yard. Charny had found him in the forest of Meudon.

‘Ah 1 it is you, sir,’ cried the king, on perceiving him. ‘Is it me whom you are seeking?’

‘Yes, sire.’

‘What, then, has happened? You seem to have ridden hard.’

‘Sire, there are at this moment ten thousand women at Versailles, who have come from Paris, and who are crying {or bread.’

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The king shrugged up his shoulders, but it was more from a feeling of compassion than of disdain.

‘Alas I’ said he, ‘if I had bread for them, I should not have waited their coming from Paris to ask it of me.’

‘Well, then, air, let us go to Versailles,’ said he.

And he rode off towards Versailles. He had just arrived there, as we have said, when frightful cries were heard proceeding from the Place d’Armes.

‘What is the meaning of that?’ inquired the king.

‘Sire,’ cried Gilbert, entering the room, pale as death, ‘they are your guards, who, led on by Monsieur George de Charny, are charging upon the president of the National Assembly, and a deputation which he is leading here.’

‘Impossible !’ exclaimed the king..

‘Listen to the cries of those whom they are assassinating. Look 1 look at the people who are flying in terror I’

‘Let the gates be thrown open,’ cried the king. ‘I will receive the deputation.’

‘But, sire 1’ exclaimed the queen.

‘Let the gates be opened,’ said Louis XVI.; ‘the palace of kings ought to be considered as asylums.’

‘Alas 1 excepting, perhaps, for kings themselves,’ said the queen.

CHARNY and Gilbert rushed downstairs. ‘ Open the gates 1 ‘ they cried.

But this order was no sooner executed than the president of the National Assembly was thrown down in the courtyard and trampled under foot. Two of the women forming the deputation were wounded close by his side. Gilbert and Charny threw themselves into the crowd. These two men the one proceeding from the highest class of society, the other from the lowest met, working in the same cause. The one wishes to save the queen, from his ardent love for the queen; the other wishes to save the king, from his love for royalty. On the gates being opened, the women rushed into the courtyard, and had thrown themselves into the ranks of the bodyguards and those of the Flanders regiment. They threaten, they entreat, they caress. Who could resist women when they implore those

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whom they address in the name of their sisters, their mothers ?

‘Room, gentlemen, room for the deputation I’ cried Gilbert.

And all the ranks were immediately opened to allow Mourner to pass with the unhappy women he was about to present to the king. It was Mounier who was to speak in the name of the Assembly. It was Madeleine Chambry, the flower-girl, who had beaten the drum, who was to speak in the name of the women. Mounier said a few words to the king, and presented to him the young flower-girl. The latter stepped forward a pace or two and wished to speak, but could only utter these words :

‘Sire bread 1’ And she fell fainting to the ground.

‘Help I help !’ cried the king.

Arulrce hurried forward, and .h MM
f
her smelling-bottle to the king.

The queen turned pale and withdrew to her own apartment. Prepare the equipages,’ said she, ‘the king and I are going to Rambouillet.’

During this time poor Madeleine Chambry was recovering her senses, and finding herself in the king’s arms, who was making her inhale the salts he held in his hand, she uttered a cry of shame, and wished to kiss his hand. But the king prevented her.

‘My lovely child,’ said he, ‘allow me to embrace you; you are well worth the trouble.’

‘Oh I sire, sire I since you are so kind.’ said the young girl, ‘give an order ‘

‘What order?’ inquired the king.

‘An order to have wheat sent to Paris, so that famine may cease.’

‘My dear child,’ said the king, ‘I will willingly sign the order you request, but in truth I am afraid it will not be of much service to you.’

The king seated himself at a table and began to write, when suddenly a single musket-shot was heard, followed by a tolerably quick fire of musketry.

‘Ah I good God ! good God I* exclaimed the king, ‘what can have happened ? See what it is, Monsieur Gilbert.’

A second charge upon another group of women had been made, and this charge had brought about the isolated musket-shot and the volley which had been heard. The isolated musket-shot had been fired by a man in the crowd,

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and had broken the arm of M. de Savonniere, a lieutenant in the guards.

This musket-shot was replied to on the part of the guards, by five or six shots from their carbines. Two of the shots told. A woman fell dead. Another was carried ofi seriously wounded. The people became irritated, and in their turn two of the bodyguards fell from their horses. At the same instant, cries of ‘ Room 1 room t’ are heard : they were the men from the Faubourg Saint Antoine who were arriving, dragging with them three pieces of artillery, with which they formed a battery opposite to the principal gate of the palace. Fortunately, the rain was falling in torrents; the match is uselessly applied to the touch-holes of these guns; the priming, completely soddened by the rain, does not ignite. At this moment a voice whispers into the ear of Gilbert.