'  *  I  hastened  to  the  royal  apartment,  without  mentioning
the  motive ;  but  some  such  catastrophe  was  no  more  than
what  we  incessantly  expected,  from  the  almost  hourly
changes  of  the  national  guard,  for  the  real  purpose  of
giving  easy  access  to  all  sorts  of  wretches  to  the  very
rooms  of  the  unfortunate  Queen,  in  order  to  furnish  op-
portunities for  committing  the  crime  with  impunity.
"  After  I  had  seen  the  Queen,  the  applicants  were  in-
troduced, and,  in  my  presence,  a  paper  was  handed  by
them  to  Her  Majesty.  At  the  moment  she  received  it,
I  was  obliged  to  leave  her  for  the  purpose  of  watching
an  opportunity  for  their  departure  unobserved.  These
precautions  were  necessary  with  regard  to  every  person
who  came  to  us  in  the  palace,  otherwise  the  jealousy
of  the  assembly  and  its  emissaries  and  the  national  guard
of  the  interior  might  have  been  alarmed,  and  we  should
have  been  placed  under  express  and  open  surveillance.
The  confusion  created  by  the  constant  change  of  guard,
however,  stood  us  in  good  stead  in  this  emergency.
such  an  authority,  not  having  availed  himself  at  a  crisis  like  the  one  in
which  he  was  called  upon  to  act,  rendered  his  conduct  doubtful,  and  all
his  intended  operations  suspicious  to  both  parties,  whether  his  feelings
were  really  inclined  to  prop  up  the  fallen  kingly  authority,  or  his  newly-
acquired  republican  principles  prompted  him  to  become  the  head  of  the
democratical  party,  for  no  one  can  see  into  the  hearts  of  men ;  his  popu-
larity from  that  moment  ceased  to  exist.
CHAPTER    XXIV  295

Much  passing  and  repassing  took  place  unheeded  in  the
bustle.
