out. "Give me my son," said the Queen to him; "he is accustomed to
tenderness and delicacy, which render him little fit for such
familiarity."

The Chevalier de Dampierre was killed near the King's carriage upon
leaving Varennes. A poor village cure, some leagues from the place where
the crime was committed, was imprudent enough to draw near to speak to the
King; the cannibals who surrounded the carriage rushed upon him. "Tigers,"
exclaimed Barnave, "have you ceased to be Frenchmen? Nation of brave men,
are you become a set of assassins?" These words alone saved the cure, who
was already upon the ground, from certain death. Barnave, as he spoke to
them, threw himself almost out of the coach window, and Madame Elisabeth,
affected by this noble burst of feeling, held him by the skirt of his
coat. The Queen, while speaking of this event, said that on the most
momentous occasions whimsical contrasts always struck her, and that even
at such a moment the pious Elisabeth holding Barnave by the flap of his
coat was a ludicrous sight.

The deputy was astonished in another way. Madame Elisabeth's comments
upon the state of France, her mild and persuasive eloquence, and the, ease
and simplicity with which she talked to him, yet without sacrificing her
dignity in the slightest degree, appeared to him unique, and his heart,
which was doubtless inclined to right principles though he had followed
the wrong path, was overcome by admiration. The conduct of the two
deputies convinced the Queen of the total separation between the
republican and constitutional parties. At the inns where she alighted she
had some private conversation with Barnave. The latter said a great deal
about the errors committed by the royalists during the Revolution, adding
that he had found the interest of the Court so feebly and so badly
defended that he had been frequently tempted to go and offer it, in