Ange Pitou by Alexandre Dumas part three

This look stopped the question which about to issue from his lips.

But the queen’s look pierced into the recesses of Charny’s heart.

There was no need for his speaking. Marie Antoinette had divined his thought.

“She is coming,” said the queen; “you need not be uneasy.”

And she ran to the dauphin, and clasped him in her arms.

Andrée immediately after this closed the last door, and in her turn entered the room called the Œil de Bœuf.

Andrée and De Charny did not exchange a word.

The smile of the one replied to the smile of the other, and that was all.

Strange to say, these two hearts, which had so long been severed, began to entertain feelings which responded to each other.

During this time the queen looked around her; and as if she felt delight in finding De Charny in fault:—

“The king,” she inquired, “where is the king?”

“The king is seeking for you, Madame,” tranquilly replied De Charny; “he went to your apartment by one corridor, while you were coming here by another.”

At the same instant loud cries were heard in the adjoining room.

They were the assassins, who were vociferating, “Down with the Austrian woman! Down with the Messalina! Down with the Veto! She must be strangled! She must be hanged!”

At the same time two pistol-shots were heard, and two balls pierced through the door at different heights.

One of these balls passed only a quarter of an inch above the head or the dauphin, and then buried itself in the opposite wainscoting.

“Oh, my God! my God!” cried the queen, falling upon her knees, “we shall all be killed!”

The five or six guards, upon a sign made to them by De Charny, then placed themselves before the queen and the two royal children, thus forming a rampart for them with their bodies.

At that moment the king appeared, his eyes full of tears, his face pale as death; he was calling for the queen as the queen had called for him.

He perceived her, and threw himself into her arms.

“Saved! saved!” exclaimed the queen.

“By him, Madame,” cried the king, pointing to De Charny; “and you are saved by him also, are you not?”

“By his brother,” replied the queen.

“Sir,” said Louis XVI. to the count, “we owe much to your family, so much that we shall never be able to repay the debt.”

The queen’s eyes met those of Andrdée, and she turned away her head, blushing deeply.

The blows of the assailants were heard endeavoring to destroy the door.

“Come, gentlemen,” said De Charny, “we must defend our position here for another hour. There are seven of us, and it will take them full an hour to kill us if we defend ourselves resolutely. Before an hour elapses a reinforcement must have arrived to the assistance of their Majesties.”

Saying these words, De Charny seized a large press which was standing in one of the corners of the royal room.

His example was instantly followed, and a heap of furniture was piled up against the door, between which the guards took care to leave loopholes, through which they could fire on the assailants.

The queen took her two children in her arms, and raising her hands above their heads, she prayed.

The children restrained their cries and tears.

The king went into the cabinet contiguous to the Œil de Bœuf, in order to burn some valuable papers which he did not wish to fall into the hands of the assassins.

The latter were attacking the door more desperately than ever. At every instant, splinters were seen flying before the blows given by a sharp hatchet, or wrenched out by large pincers.

By the openings which had been thus made, pikes with reddened points, bayonets reeking with blood were forced through, attempting to hurl death on those within.

At the same time, the balls pierced the framework above the barricades, and left long traces on the gilded plaster of the ceiling.

At length a bench rolls from the top of the press; the press itself was partly damaged. One whole panel of the door, which formed the front of the press, gave way, and they could see, in the place of the bayonets and pikes, arms covered with blood pass through it and grasp the sides of the opening, which every moment became wider.

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