"It was my month of waiting as lady of honour. I found the queen always
firm; or, if she ever trembled, it was at the want of firmness in
others. She had made up her mind for the worst long before. She often
said to me, in those revolutionary nights when we sat listening for the
sound of the cannon or the tocsin from Paris--'France is an abyss, in
which the throne must sink. But sovereigns may be undone--they must not
be disgraced.' The world never possessed a more royal mind.

"At length an opportunity seemed to offer of showing the true feeling of
the court to the army. The regiment of Flanders had come to take its
tour of service at the palace, and the _garde du corps_ had sent them an
invitation to a grand military banquet. There was nothing new, and could
have been nothing suspicious, in the invitation; for it was the custom
of the _garde_, on the arrival of any regiment at Versailles, as a
commencement of mutual civility. The regiment of Flanders was a
distinguished corps--but the whole army had been tampered with; and the
experiment was for the first time a doubtful one. As if to make it still
more doubtful, the invitation was extended to the national guard of
Versailles."

Every eye was now fixed on the narrator, as she went on with increasing
animation.

"Never was there a day of greater anxiety. We were sure of the _garde du
corps_; but treachery was roving through France, and the banquet might
only produce a collision. The entertainment, by being in the opera
salon, was actually within the palace, and all the royal suite remained
in the royal apartments, in fear and trembling, during the entire day.