Fifteen thousand men followed him, with a more silent enthusiasm, but which was at the same time more terrible than that of the women who had gone forward as the advanced guard.
All these people were to assemble again at Versailles, to ask the king for the crumbs which fell from the table of the body-guards during the orgies of the 1st of October.
1 The porter, or gate-keeper.
Chapter XXI
Versailles
AS usual, they were completely ignorant at Versailles of what was going on at Paris.
After the scenes which we have described, and on the occurrence of which the queen had openly congratulated herself, her Majesty was resting herself after her fatigue.
She had an army; she had her devotees; she had counted her enemies; she wished to begin the contest.
Had she not the defeat of the 14th of July to avenge? Had she not the king’s journey to Paris—a journey from which he had returned with the tricolored cockade in his hat—to forget, and to make her court forget it also?
Poor woman! she but little expected the journey which she herself would be shortly compelled to take.
Since her altercation with Charny, she had scarcely spoken to him. She affected to treat Andrée with her former friendliness, which had for a time been deadened in her heart, but which was forever extinguished in that of her rival.
As to Charny, she never turned towards or looked at him, but when she was compelled to address herself to him upon matters regarding his service, or to give him an order.
It was not a family disgrace; for on the very morning on which the Parisians were to leave Paris to come to Versailles, the queen was seen talking affectionately with young George de Charny, the second of the three brothers, who, in contradiction to Olivier, had given such warlike counsels to the queen on the arrival of the news of the capture of the Bastille.
And in fact, at nine in the morning, as the young officer was crossing the gallery to announce to the huntsman that the king intended going out, Marie Antoinette, returning from Mass in the chapel, saw him, and called him to her.
“Where are you running thus, sir?” said she to him.
“As soon as I perceived your Majesty I ran no longer,” replied George; “on the contrary, I instantly stopped, and I was waiting humbly for the honor you have done me in addressing me.”
“That does not prevent you, sir, from replying to my question, and telling me whither you are going.”
“Madame,” replied George, “I am on duty to-day, and form part of the escort. His Majesty hunts to-day; and I am going to the huntsman to make arrangements for the meet.”
“Ah! the king hunts again to-day,” said the queen, looking at the big dark clouds which were rolling on from Paris towards Versailles. “He is wrong to do so. The weather appears to be threatening; does it not, Andrée?”
“Yes, Madame,” absently replied the Countess de Charny.
“Are you not of that opinion, sir?”
“I am so, Madame; but such is the king’s will.”
“May the king’s will be done, in the woods and on the highroads!” replied the queen, with that gayety of manner which was habitual with her,and of which neither the sorrows of the heart nor political events could ever deprive her.
Then turning towards Andrée:—
“It is but just that he should have this amusement,” said the queen to her in a whisper.
And then aloud to George:—
“Can you tell me, sir, where the king intends hunting?”
“In the Meudon wood, Madame.”
“Well, then, accompany him, and watch carefully over his safety.”
At this moment the Count de Charny had entered the room. He smiled kindly at Andrée, and shaking his head, ventured to say to the queen:—
“That is a recommendation which my brother will not fail to remember, Madame, not in the midst of the king’s pleasures, but in the midst of his dangers.”
At the sound of the voice which had struck upon her ear, before her eyes had warned her of the presence of Charny, Marie Antoinette started, and turning round: