By degrees, however, the noises ceased; the slumber f the mind extinguished all the ignes-fatui, the phantasmagoria of intoxication. The king, besides, paid a visit to the queen at the moment she was about to retire, and let fall these words, replete with profound wisdom:—
“We shall see to-morrow.”
The imprudent man! by this saying, which to any other person but the one to whom it was addressed would have been a warning and sage counsel, he had revivified in the queen’s mind feelings of provocation and resistance which had almost subsided.
“In fact,” murmured she, when the king had left her, this flame, which was confined to the palace this evening, will spread itself in Versailles during the night, and to-morrow will produce a general conflagration throughout France. All these soldiers, all these officers, who have this evening given me such fervent pledges of their devotedness, will be called traitors, rebels to the nation, murderers of their country. They will call the chiefs of these aristocrats the subalterns of the stipendiaries of Pitt and Coburg, of the satellites of power, of the barbarians, the savages of the North.
“Each of these heads which has worn the black cockade will be doomed to be fixed to the lamp-post on the Place de Grève.
“Each of those breasts from which so loyally escaped those shouts of ‘Long live the queen!’ will, on the first popular commotion, be pierced with ignoble knives and infamous pikes.
“And it is I, again—I, always I, who have been the cause of all this! I shall have condemned to death all these brave and faithful servants,—I, the inviolable sovereign. They are hypocritically left unassailed when near me, but when away from me will be insulted from hatred.
“Oh, no, rather than be ungrateful to such a degree as that, towards my only, my last friends,—rather than be so cowardly and so heartless, I will take the fault upon myself. It is for me that all this has been done; upon me let all their anger fall. We shall then see how far their anger will be carried; we shall see up to which step of my throne the impure tide will dare to ascend.”
And to the queen, animated by these thoughts, which drove sleep from her pillow, and on which she meditated during the greater part of the night, the result of the events of the next day was no longer doubtful.
The next day came, clouded over with gloomy regrets, and ushered in by threatening murmurs.
On that day the National Guards, to whom the queen had presented their colors, came to the palace with heads cast down and averted eyes, to thank her Majesty.
It was easy to divine from the attitude of these men that they did not approve what had occurred, but on the contrary, that they would have loudly disapproved it had they dared.
They had formed part of the procession, and had gone out to form part of the Flanders regiment; they had received invitations to the banquet, and had accepted them. Only, being more citizens than soldiers, it was they who during the debauch had uttered those disapproving words which had not been heeded.
These words on the following day had become a reproach, a blame.
When they came to the palace to thank the queen, they were escorted by a great crowd.
And taking into consideration the serious nature of the circumstances, the ceremony became an imposing one.
The parties on both sides were about to discover with whom they would have to deal.
On their side, all those soldiers and officers who had so compromised themselves the evening before, were anxious to ascertain how far they would be supported by the queen in their imprudent demonstrations, and had placed themselves before that people whom they had scandalized and insulted, that they might hear the first official words which should be uttered from the palace.
The weight of the whole counter-revolution was then hanging suspended over the head of the queen.
It was, however, still within her power to withdraw from this responsibility.
But she, proud as the proudest of her race, with great firmness cast her clear and penetrating gaze on all around her, whether friends or enemies, and addressing herself in a sonorous voice to the officers of the National Guards:—