The life of Napoleon Buonaparte, emperor of the French. By Sir Walter Scott.

44.LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.
in former times shared. - There arose a cry among at the head of the column, as the emblems of their
them,-" Let us save the Gardes du Corps, who prowess and success.4 The rest of this body, worn
saved us at Fontenoy." They took them under down by fatigue, most of them despoiled of their
their protection, exchanged their caps with them in arms, and many without hats, anxious for the fate
sign of friendship and fiaternity.,-and a tumult, which of the royal family, and harassed with apprehensions
had something of the character of joy, succeeded for themselves, were dragged like captives in the
to that which had announced nothing but blood and midst of the mob, while the drunken females around
death. them bore aloft in triumph their arms, their belts,
The outside of the palace was still besieged by and their hats. These wretches, stained with the
the infuriated mob, who demanded, with hideous blood in which: they had bathed themselves, were
cries, and exclamations the most barbarous and now singing songs, of which the burthen bore,obscene, to see the Austrian, as they called the "We bring you the baker, his wife, and the little
queen. The unfortunate princess appeared on the apprentice;" as if the presence of the unhappy royal
balcony with one of her children in each hand. A family, with the little power they now possessed,
voice from the crowd called out, "No children!" had been in itself a charm against scarcity. Some
as if on purpose to deprive the mother of that appeal of these Amazons rode upon the cannon, which
to humanity, which might move the hardest heart. made a formidable part of the procession. Many of
Marie Antoinette, with a force of mind worthy of them were mounted on the horses of the Gardes du
Maria Theresa, her mother, pushed her children Corps, some in masculine fashion, others en croupe.
back into the room, and, turning her face to the tur All the muskets and pikes which attended this immultuous multitude, which tossed and roared be.. mense cavalcade were garnished, as if in triumph,
neath, brandishing their pikes and guns with the with oak-boughs, and the women carried long popwildest attitudes of rage, the reviled, persecuted, lar-branches in their hands, which gave the column,
and denounced queen stood before them, her arms so grotesquely composed in every respect, the apfolded on her bosom, with a noble air of courageous pearance of a moving grove. Scarce a circumstance
resignation. The secret reason of this summons- was omitted which could render this entrance into
the real canse of repelling the children-could only the capital more insulting to the king's feelingsbe to atford a chance of some desperate hand among more degrading to the royal dignity.
the crowd executing the threats which resounded After six hours of dishonour and agony, the unforon all sides. Accordingly, a gun was actually le- tunate Louis was brought to the H6tel deVille, where
veled, but one of the bystanders struck it down; Bailly, then mayor, complimented him upon the
for the passions of the mob had taken an opposite " beau jour," the " splendid day," which restored
turn, and, astonished at Marie Antoinette's noble the monarch of France to his capital; assured him
presence, and graceful firmness of demeanour, there that order, peace, and all the gentler virtues, were
arose, almost in spite of themselves, a general shout about to revive in the country under his royal eye,
of Vive la reine! - and that the king would henceforth become powerful
But if the insurgents, or rather those who prompt- through the people, the people happy through the
ed them, missed their first point, they did not also king; and, "what was truest of all," that as Henry IV.
lose their second. A cry arose, "To Paris!" at had entered Paris by means of reconquering his
first uttered by a solitary voice, but gathering people, Louis XVI. had done so, because his people,
strength, until the whole multitude shouted, "To had reconquered their king.t flis wounds salved
Paris-to Paris!" The cry of these blood-thirsty with this lip-comforit, the unhappy and degraded
bacchanals, such as they had that night shown prince was permitted to retire to the palace of the
themselves, was, it seems, considered as the voice Tuileries, which, long uninhabited, and almost unof the people, and as such, La Fayette neither re. furnished, yawned upon him like the tomb where
monstrated himself, nor permitted the king to inter- alone he at length found repose.
pose a moment's delay in yielding obedience to it; The events of the 14th July, 1789, when the Basnor was any measure taken to put some appearance tille was taken, formed the first great stride of the
even of decency on the journey, or to disguise its Revolution, actively considered. Those of the 5th
real character, of a triumphant procession of the and 6th October, in the same year, which we have
sovereign people, after a complete victory over their detailed at length, as peculiarly characteristic of
nominal monarch. the features which it assumed, made the second
The carriages of the royal family were placed in the - It has been said they were borne immediately before
middle of an immeasurable column, consisting partly the royal carriage; but this is an exaggeration where exagof La Fayette's soldiers, partly of the revolutionary geration is unnecessary. These bloody trophies preceded
Irabble whose march had preceded his, arnounting the royal family a great way on the march to Paris.
to several thousand men and women of the lowest t Minmeires d'un Timoin de lco Revolution, ouvrage
and most desperate description, intermingling in posthume de Jean-Sylvaia Bailly (Choix de ses Lettres
civic soldiers, whose discipline could not enable them The Mayor of Paris, although such language must have
to preserve even a semblance of orrder. Thus they sounded like the most bitter irony, had no choice of words
on the 6th October, 1789. But if he seriously termed that a
rushed along, howli their songs of trio lmph. The glorious day, how could Bailly complain ofthe studied inharbingers of the march bore the two bloody heads suits and cruelties which he himself sustained, when, in
of the murdered Gardes du Corps paraded on pikes, October, 1792, the same banditti of Paris, who forced the
_ Mminroires de Weber, concerenant Marie-Antoinette, king from Versailles, dragged himself to death, with every
vol. I, p. 451: 2 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1822. circumstance of refined cruelty and protracted insult?