Gilbert in vain attempts to discover who has given him this information; but from whomsoever it might come, it was valuable.
He looks around him, and sees a horse without a rider; it belonged to one of the two guards who had just been killed.
He leaps into the saddle, and sets off at a gallop on the road towards Paris.
The second horse without a rider follows him; but he has scarcely gone twenty paces over the square when he is stopped by the bridle. Gilbert believes his intention has been divined, and that some one wishes to pursue him; he casts a look behind him as he rides off.
They were not thinking of him at all; but they were hungry. They think of nothing but obtaining food, and the poor horse is instantly butchered by a hundred knives.
In a moment it is cut into a hundred pieces.
During this time the king had been informed, as Gilbert had been, that General de Lafayette was about to arrive.
He had signed, at the request of Mounier, his acceptance of the Rights of Man.
He had signed, at the request of Madeleine Chambry, the order for corn to be sent to Paris.
Furnished with this decree and this order, which it was thought would have tranquillized all minds, Maillard, Madeleine Chambry, and a thousand of the women had set out on their return to Paris.
Just beyond the first houses of Versailles they met Lafayette, who, pressed by Gilbert, was riding at full speed, having ordered the National Guards to follow him as quickly as possible.
“Long live the king! “cried Maillard and the women, waving the decrees above their heads.
“What was it, then, you were saying to me of the dangers to which his Majesty is exposed?” said Lafayette, with astonishment.
“Come on, General, come on!” cried Gilbert, continuing to urge him onwards; “you shall yourself judge of them.”
And Lafayette spurred on his horse.
The National Guards entered Versailles with drums beating and colors flying.
At the first sounds of the drum which penetrated the palace, the king felt that some one was respectfully touching his arm.
He turned round; it was Andrée.
“Ah! is it you, Madame de Charny?” said he, “What is the queen doing?”
“Sire, the queen sends to entreat that you will leave Versailles, that you will not wait for the Parisians. At the head of your guards and the soldiers of the Flanders regiment, you can go anywhere.”
“Are you of that opinion, Monsieur de Charny?” inquired the king.
“Yes, Sire, if you at once determine on passing the frontier; but if not—”
“If not?”
“It would be better to remain here.
“The king shook his head.
His Majesty remains, not because he has the courage to remain, but because he has not firmness to decide on going.
He murmured in a low tone:—
“A fugitive king! a fugitive king!”
Then, turning to Andrée:—
“Go and tell the queen to set out alone.”
Andrée left the room to execute her mission.
Ten minutes afterwards, the queen came in and seated herself by the king’s side.
“For what purpose have you come here, Madame?” asked Louis XVI.
“To die with you, Sire,” replied the queen.
“Ah!” murmured De Charny, “it is now that she is truly beautiful.”
The queen shuddered; she had heard him.
“I believe, indeed, it would be better that I should die than live,” said she, looking at him.
At that moment the march of the National Guards was heard under the windows of the palace.
Gilbert rapidly entered the room.
“Sire,” said he to the king, “you have nothing further to apprehend; Monsieur de Lafayette is below.”
The king did not like Monsieur de Lafayette; but he did not carry his feelings farther than dislike.
With regard to the queen, it was a very different matter. She frankly hated him, and took no pains to conceal her hatred.
The result of this was that Gilbert received no reply, although he had believed that the intelligence he had communicated was the most favorable he could have brought at such a moment.
But Gilbert was not a man to allow himself to be intimidated by royal silence.