Page 48 of The False Chevalier


  CHAPTER XLVII

  THE DEFENCE OF THE BODYGUARD

  Word passed about at the stately tea _a l'Anglaise_ of the Princess dePoix that there was danger at the Palace.

  "Germain, my knight," whispered Cyrene at the harpsichord, the brighttears in her eyes, "I must not keep you now. Go to the Queen. It is fortimes of peril that descendants of chivalry were born."

  Tenderly kissing her hand and saying adieu, Lecour drove to the Palaceand reported for service.

  The great Hall of the Guards in the centre of the Palace faces the topof the Marble Staircase. To the left a landing leads to the Hall of theKing's Guards and thence, to the apartment of the King; to the rightanother to the Hall of the Queen's Guards and the chambers of MarieAntoinette.

  The Marble Staircase was approached by the Court of Marble, the smallestand innermost courtyard of the vast chateau, looked out upon by theroyal apartments and paved with white marble. The exit from this was tothe Royal Court, whence through a grating to the Court of the Ministers,and thence through the outer grating by the entrance gate to the Placed'Armes.

  Though the season was yet early in October, it was as gloomy andforbidding a night as one in the worst of November. The darkness andchill were aggravated by a wearisome drizzle. They were furtheraggravated by the discomforts of an anxious situation. About fiftyBodyguards, lying and sitting under arms in the Hall, were trying tospend the night, or rather the early hours before dawn, entertainingeach other. They were mainly of the command of the Count de Guiche, thenin its turn of service, but a number among them wore cross-belts ofother companies, for the need had been pressing, and all within reachhad been hastily summoned. The reason for anxiety was a great invasionof women from Paris on the afternoon of the previous day headed by "aconqueror of the Bastille." A deputation of twelve of these women wereled to the King, who satisfied and pleased them by his kindness, but therest of the crowd, brandishing knives through the railing, accused theseof treachery and tried to hang them. Outside the Palace on the Placed'Armes the numbers were increased by horde after horde of men marchingfrom the slums of Paris, armed with pikes, muskets, and hatchets, andfull of drink. After dark many had filled the streets, knocking at thehouses demanding food and money, and terrifying the town. The sentinels,the Bodyguards, and the Flemish regiment had with difficulty rescued thewomen of the deputation, kept the gates and held the mob at bay. Theywere jeered at and even fired on, whereat one or two of the Bodyguardshad fired back. The filthy furies, drunken and degraded to an extent ofdegradation almost unknown to-day, were especially foul-mouthedregarding the poor Queen. As for Wife Gougeon, she had stood out on thevery floor of the Assembly, flourished her dagger and screamed "Wherecan I find the Austrian?"

  At length rain and night brought a certain cessation, and with themhopes rose. The troops were withdrawn at eight. The main portion of theBodyguard were sent to Rambouillet in the vicinity, as they seemed toexcite antagonism among some companies of the National Guard or militiaof Versailles. About twelve in the evening, General Lafayette, ofAmerican fame, came up at the head of the militia of Paris and tookcommand of the external defences of the chateau.

  The mob were still, however, permitted to camp out on the Place d'Armes.

  "What are they doing now?" a tired officer of the Bodyguards asked ofanother, who had come in and was giving his dripping cloak to one of theKing's lackeys.

  "They are mostly asleep, on the Place. It is all over hillocks of rags."

  "In the rain?"

  "So it seems; it does not wet that sort."

  "They must be hungry."

  "Not at all. They have each his or her bottle of drink; besides, theyroasted and ate our comrade's horse that they shot by the light of theirbonfire. It was looking on at a cannibal's feast to see them dancinground it, men and women."

  "More so had it been an ass's carcase, perhaps."

  "Say a wolf's. If there is a breed of human wolves, I have had it provedto me to-night. The difference between these and the kind in theMenagerie is that it is we who are within the bars."

  "You need not offer the breed as a novelty; I saw plenty of them at EauxTranquilles."

  The speakers were Grancey and Germain. The Baron's face was full ofindignation; Lecour's of platonic contempt.

  The door of the Hall of the King's Guards opened, and the sentinelssaluted for a Duke, while the Prince of Luxembourg entered. The Guardswho were awake aroused their comrades. All sprang to their arms andsaluted.

  "Gentlemen," said the Prince, "you will be glad to know that his Majestyhas such trust in your faithfulness that he is sleeping as quietly asusual."

  A shout of "Vive le Roi!" arose.

  The Prince withdrew. From the opposite door--that of the Hall of theQueen, now came out Monsieur d'Aguesseau, Mayor of the Guard, who wasmaking the disposition of sentries.

  The contingent, who were still standing, turned to him with looks ofanxiety, and Lecour, as spokesman for the rest, said respectfully--

  "How sleeps the Queen?"

  "Her Majesty, alas! does not sleep. She starts up continually, hauntedby the foul insults of yesterday and the immense unmerited hatred of thepeople of France. What a load for a woman to bear!"

  The cry of "Vive la Reine!" which had been ready went forth only as alow murmur.

  "Gentlemen," said d'Aguesseau, "our duty may be grave before long.General Lafayette has, it is true, assumed the external defence of thePalace with the National Guard of Paris. At the same time, we mustremember that that Guard are now scattered among the churches of thetown and fast asleep, while the invaders are a countless multitude atour doors, and we but a handful. On us depend, as on a thread, the livesof our King and Queen and of all these helpless persons of thehousehold. Remember, sirs, that your time to die, the soldier's hour ofglory, may now have come."

  A shoot of "Vive le Roi!" from every throat was again the response. Itechoed through the windows across the Court of Marble and down theGreat Staircase. It was memorable as the last loyal cry of the householdof Versailles.

  "The hour has arrived to change guard," Mayor d'Aguesseau went on. "Willyou, Monsieur de Lincy, take command in the Hall of the Queen?"

  D'Aguesseau passed on to inspect the precautions at other points of thePalace.

  No sooner had he left than the men disposed themselves with seriousfaces for active work. A sympathetic feeling of devotion displayeditself. Suddenly Des Huttes, the best voice in the company of Noailles,struck up solemnly that tender reminiscence from the opera of "RichardCoeur de Lion"--

  "Oh, Richard, oh my King, the world forsaketh thee,"

  and the Bodyguards, overcome with emotion, one and all stood still withbended heads.

  It was then about three o'clock.

  In four hours' more the French Monarchy was to fall and the ancient_regime_ to pass like a dream. The east wind dashed a terrible gust ofrain against the windows and shook their panes like a summons.

  * * * * *

  "Oh, Richard, oh my King, the world forsaketh thee," haunted Germain ashe paced the Hall of the Queen's Guards. Recent political eventsconnected with the drawing up of a national constitution, and the hungerof the poor, which they naturally blamed on those in power, had, heknew, raised deep animosity towards Louis XVI. and the Queen. Herthoughtless life of gaiety in past days, and the greedy demands of herfriends the Polignacs, had made her particularly the mark of venomoushate. As d'Aguesseau said, "what a load for a woman to bear!" Thethought raised in Lecour the deepest pity. Opposite him was the door ofthe first antechamber, called the Grand Couvert, where had postedVaricourt, and within it some dozen others. There Varicourt stood,handsome and elegantly uniformed, at that beautiful door in that finehall. Yet behind all this elegance what misery! The Canadian could notsuppress the vision of the tortured Queen starting out of her sleep inher chamber a few paces away. This suffering woman was in his charge--hemust be loyal to her and lay down his life before hers should be taken.Well, he had fa
ced death before--it had not yet quite come to that; buthe would be loyal and true. Oh, if he could only cross for a few minutesto the Noailles mansion and have a word with Cyrene. Was she in dangertoo? His heart ached with anxiety.

  So the hours of the night passed.

  A little before six, while he was resting on a bench and all seemedquiet, he suddenly heard shouting. He was startled, for it was muchnearer than the Place d'Armes. Yes, there was no doubt of it; he heard apistol-shot close by, and at the same time he sprang to his feet. Therewas a simultaneous stir in the Great Hall of the Guards, and deVaricourt, at the entrance to the Queen's antechamber, rapidly drew hissword. So did du Repaire, sentinel at the door to the Marble Staircase.

  Germain ordered Miomandre de Ste. Marie, another faithful Guardsman, whowas posted at the door of the Great Hall, to go down the MarbleStaircase and bring back a report of the trouble.

  It afterwards appeared that the two of Lafayette's Paris militiamenposted at the outer gateway had betrayed their trust and let in the mobof viragoes and armed brigands who pressed for admittance early in themorning. Now commenced a season of terror in the Palace.

  No sooner had Miomandre reached the head of the staircase, and Lecourlooked after him out of the open door, than they both saw the courtbelow alive with a lashing ocean of pikes and furious faces.

  The two Swiss sentinels who kept the foot of the staircase had managedto check the rush, and for a moment the brigands checked themselves toget each a hack at an object they had thrown down. Lecour saw instantlythat this object was a man--a Bodyguard--who, as with a tremendouseffort he threw off his assailants and stood up, the streams of bloodpouring over his face, he recognised as poor Des Huttes. Germain's firstimpulse was to bound down the steps to his rescue--but discipline didits work and checked him. Should he leave his post, what would become ofthe Queen? Des Huttes during the moment of this quick reflection, wasbrained from behind by a man in a red cap, and fell, pierced withcountless pike-wounds. His eyes still moved when the rag-picker Gougeonran in, and, placing his foot on the chest, chopped the head from thebody with blows of an axe. In an instant it was stuck on the point of apike and triumphantly carried away.

  Lecour, his brain on fire, drew back and steadied himself to retainpresence of mind.

  An instant after he could hear the roar of the mob as it surged up andthe voice of Miomandre shouting to them, "My friends, you love yourKing."

  They rushed on Miomandre and tried to kill him as they had done DesHuttes; but he was quick, and springing to the embrasure of a window,defended himself, while the yelling booty-seekers, athirst foreasier-seized treasures, turned to press forward into the apartment ofthe Queen. The attack came quickly, but Germain shut the door in timeand locked it, and thanks to the perfect make of the lock its bolt heldout against the onset. That could not long be, however, as he knew thepanels must give way before their axes.

  "Stand firm, du Repaire!" he cried, and ran across the hall to where deVaricourt was guarding the door of the Queen's antechamber. Beforepassing in, he grasped the hand of the devoted Bodyguard, who understoodthat his hour had come, crossed himself, and answered with a look ofunalterable devotion.

  Germain closed the door of the antechamber lovingly and regretfully,locked and bolted it.

  The howling pack were but a few minutes in breaking in. He could heartheir shouts of triumph and the shameless cries of the women againstMarie Antoinette.

  Astonished at finding themselves in the inside of the Palace, the firstcomers were dumbfounded, but a red-nosed beggar in a red cap immediatelysprang towards de Varicourt, shouting, "This way to the Austrian!"

  "Vive la Nation!" roared men who were looting the tapestry from thebenches.

  "Death to the Sow!" was the shriek of Wife Gougeon.

  "Death to the aristocrat!" shouted the Admiral with a devilish laugh,leading the rush on de Varicourt.

  The latter defended himself with all his strength, first with hisclubbed musket, then with his sword. For some seconds he kept themurderers at bay, and it seemed to du Repaire, looking eagerly acrossthe hall, that after all the impossible might be accomplished, and thevalour of his comrade stem the accursed horde. To no purpose. As heturned like lightning to deliver a thrust to the left, a blow from abillhook on the right crushed his skull; he dropped, and his bleedingbody was instantly robbed and dragged out to the Place d'Armes.

  Meanwhile du Repaire, inspired by the heroic conduct of de Varicourt,took advantage of the momentary diversion to slip across and occupy hisfallen comrade's post. The assailants, some of the boldest of whom hadsuffered from de Varicourt's sword, were astonished and daunted by thesight of another Bodyguard in the same place.

  "_Canaille!_ we know how to die!" he cried, and stood ready to strikethe first on-comer.

  "So do we!" cried the Admiral, and struck at him, but tripped and waspulled back.

  "Save yourself, du Repaire, if you can," commanded Germain from withinthe door.

  Seizing the moment's confusion, du Repaire sprang through the weakestpart of the semicircle around him, and scattering the tramps in the restof the hall before him, reached the door of the Great Hall of the Guardsopposite, not without several wounds. The door was fortunately openedand Grancey, who opened it, emptied his pistol into the foremost pursuerand killed him, obtaining time to lock and bolt again.

  The crowning instance of the spirit of the Bodyguard was now given.Miomandre de Ste Marie, who had sheltered himself from the first rush ofthe mob in the window embrasure at the head of the staircase, seeing thecrowd rush after du Repaire, and not knowing of the command to abandonthe post, sped over and stationed himself in the same position.Meanwhile, during the few minutes in which all this took place, Germainhad opened the door of the Queen's drawing-room and said quietly to alady of honour, "Save the Queen; they want to kill her." The ladies ofhonour bolted the drawing-room door, hurried to the Queen, hastilydressed her, opened a secret door in a panel near her bed, and hurriedher by a passage to the chamber of the King.

  Miomandre, meanwhile, was attacked like Varicourt and du Repaire.Knocked down from behind with the butt of a musket, he would have beendespatched but for the scramble of the Galley men to rob his body of hiswatch, and by the diversion of the rage of the crowd against hiscompanions shut in the Great Hall.

  While Ste Marie lay insensible, those in the Great Hall were activelypiling up benches against the door and removing the stacks of arms tothe Oeil de Boeuf, which adjoined it, and where they proposed to maketheir next stand in the way to the apartments of the King. The Count ofGuiche and the Prince of Luxembourg worked like the rest, and just asthe door crashed through the last of the weapons were brought into theOeil de Boeuf and its entrance closed. The Hall of the Courtiers seemedto receive the unusual invasion with the inperturbability of a courtier.One scene of bustling life appeared to suit it as well as another, eventhough death were so near to follow. The little reserve were drawn up inorder, determined to fight it out there together.

  And now a long, low sound was heard in the distance. It approached, andas it grew the shouts of rage in the Great Hall ceased, and a roar ofscuttling feet was heard. Lafayette's National Guard were approaching,and as the serried lines, advancing at the double, reached the Court ofMarble, their drum-beats suddenly burst into a thunderous roll, and theCourt, the staircase, and the halls were cleared of the cowardly rabble.

  Such was the glorious defence of the Bodyguard. And so the Queen wassaved.

  The Queen was saved; the King was saved; the household was saved--atleast for the present--but the monarchy was lost.

  His Majesty left Versailles at one o'clock. The Queen, the Dauphin,Madame Royale, Monsieur, Madame Elizabeth, the King's sister and Madamede Tourzel, governess of the children of France, were in his Majesty'scarriage.

  A hundred deputies of the Assembly in their carriages came next. Theadvance guard, which was formed of a detachment of the brigands, set outtwo hours earlier. In front of them Hache and Motte danced in triump
h,carrying the pallid heads of Des Huttes and de Varicourt aloft on theirpikes.

  They stopped a moment at Sevres in front of the shop of an unfortunatehairdresser. They caught hold of the latter and forced him to dress thegory heads; a task which made the poor man a hopeless maniac the sameevening.

  The bulk of the Paris National Guard followed them closely. The King'scarriage was preceded by Wife Gougeon and the fishwomen and a rabble ofprostitutes, the vile refuse of their sex, all raving with fury andwine.

  Several rode astride upon cannon, boasting in the most horrible songs ofthe crimes they had committed themselves or seen others commit. Thosewho were nearest the carriage sang ballads, the allusions in which, bymeans of their gestures, they applied to the Queen. In the paroxysms oftheir drunken merriment these women stopped passengers, and pointing tothe carriage, howled in their ears, "Cheer up, friends, we shall nolonger be in want of bread; we bring the baker, the baker's wife, andthe baker's boy."

  They pointed to waggons which followed, full of corn and flour, whichhad been brought into Versailles, and formed a train, escorted byGrenadiers and surrounded by women and bullies, some armed with pikesand some carrying long branches of poplar. This favourite part of the_cortege_ looked at some distance like a moving grove, amidst whichshone pike-heads and gun-barrels. Above and in front of the motleyprocession which accompanied them, mounted high on one of the waggons,rode Death himself, so the spectators thought, grinning, triumphing, anddirecting the whole, in the shape of the skull-like countenance of theAdmiral of the Galley-on-Land.

  Behind his Majesty's carriage were the remnant of the Bodyguard, some onfoot and some on horseback, most of them uncovered, all unarmed, andworn out with hunger and fatigue. The Dragoons, the Flanders regiment,the Hundred Swiss and the National Guards, preceded, accompanied, orfollowed the file of carriages.

  Lecour, weak with the night's anxiety and the frightful disappointmentof the day, had scarcely strength to drag himself along between twoGrenadiers, who from time to time supported him, and one of whose greathairy caps he wore as a token of fraternity. All at once hell seemed tohave risen about him. He heard a united yell from many savage throats,and saw a ring of red-capped brutes lunging and striking at himself, anda little woman-fiend sprang at his breast and buried something sharp init.

  The last thing of which he was conscious was the satanic revengefulnessof her eyes.

 
W. D. Lighthall's Novels