did not,' continued the Ambassador, 'paralyse the artful tongue of
Bailly, the Mayor of Paris. I could have kicked the fellow for his
malignant impudence; for, even in the cunning compliment he framed, he
studied to humble the afflicted Monarch by telling the people it was to
them he owed the sovereign authority.

"'But,' pursued the Count, 'considering the situation of Louis XVI. and
that of his family, agonised as they must have been during his absence,
from the Queen's impression that the Parisians would never again allow
him to see Versailles, how great was our rapture when we saw him safely
replaced in his carriage, and returning to those who were still lamenting
him as lost!

"'When I left Her Majesty in the morning, she was nearly in a state of
mental aberration. When I saw her again in the evening, the King by her
side, surrounded by her family, the Princesse Eizabeth, and yourself,
madame' said the kind Count, 'she appeared to me like a person risen from
the dead and restored to life. Her excess of joy at the first moment was
beyond description!'

"Count Fersen might well say the first moment, for the pleasure of the
Queen was of short duration. Her heart was doomed to bleed afresh, when
the thrill of delight, at what she considered the escape of her husband,
was past, for she had already seen her chosen friend, the Duchesse de
Polignac, for the last time.

"Her Majesty was but just recovered from the effects of the morning's
agitation, when the Duchess, the Duke, his sister, and all his family set
off. It was impossible for her to take leave of her friend. The hour
was late--about midnight. At the same time departed the Comte d'Artois