ingenious surprise on the part of the artist. But soon it became clear
that the conflagration was undesigned and real; panic-succeeded to
delight, and the terror-stricken crowd, seeing themselves surrounded with
flames, began to make frantic efforts to escape from the danger; but there
was only one side of the square uninclosed, and that was blocked up by
carriages. The uproar and the glare made the horses unmanageable, and in a
few moments the whole mass, human beings and animals, was mingled in
helpless confusion, making flight impossible by their very eagerness to
fly, and trampling one another underfoot in bewildered misery. Of those
who did succeed in extricating themselves from the square, half made their
way to the road which runs along the bank of the river, and found that
they had only exchanged one danger for another, which, though of an
opposite character, was equally destructive. Still overwhelmed with
terror, though the first peril was over, the fugitives pushed one another
into the stream, in which great numbers were drowned. The number of the
killed could never be accurately ascertained: but no calculation estimated
the number of those who perished at less than six hundred, while those who
were grievously injured were at least as many more.

The dauphin and dauphiness were deeply shocked by a disaster so painfully
at variance with their own happiness, which, in one sense, had caused it.
Their first thought was, as far as they might be able, to mitigate it.
Most of the victims were of the poorer class, the grief of whose surviving
relatives was, in many instances, aggravated by the loss of the means of
livelihood which the labors of those who had been cut off had hitherto
supplied; and, to give temporary succor to this distress, the dauphin and
dauphiness at once drew out from the royal treasury the sums allowed to
them for their private expenses for the month, and sent the money to the
municipal authorities to be applied to the relief of the sufferers. But
Marie Antoinette did more. She felt that to give money only was but cold