"My Lord Charny!" bellowed a hearty voice on the other side of the door.
"Farmer Billet," cried Charny as a well-known face showed itself. "Is it you, my friend?"
"Yes; my lord. Where is the King, and the Queen?"
Two woman's hearts thrilled variously at this name: Andrea's and the Queen's. Charny, turning instinctively, saw both turn pale; he sighed as he shook his head.
"Open the doors, gentlemen," cried the King. "Here are friends."
The Lifeguardsmen hurried to tear down the remains of the barrier. During their work the voice of Marquis Lafayette was heard:
"Gentlemen of the National Guard, I pledged my word last night to the King that nothing appertaining to his Majesty should incur harm. If you allow his Lifeguards to be hurt, you break my word of honor, and I shall no longer be worthy of being your chief."
When the obstacles were removed, the two first persons seen were General Lafayette and Gilbert: a little to their left was Billet, delighted at having had a part in the King's deliverance. It was he who had gone and roused up the general for this deed.
"Long live the King--long live the Queen!" roared Billet. "Ah, if you had stayed in Paris this would not have happened."
"General, what do you advise?" asked the King of the marquis.
"I think you should show yourself at the window."
Gilbert nodded, and Louis walked straight to the window, opened it and stepped out on the balcony.
"Long live the King!" was the universal shout. "Come to Paris:" added others. While a few, but the most dreadful ones: "Let us have the Queen out here!"
All shivered; the King lost color as did Gilbert and Charny.
With the charming manners he preserved to old age, Marquis Lafayette gently detached the clinging children from their mother and urged them out upon the balcony. He offered his hand to Marie Antoinette, adding:
"If your Majesty will rely on me, all will go well."
He led her out on the balcony above the Marble Courtyard, a sea of enflamed human heads. The yell that burst forth at sight of the Queen was immense but none could say whether it was threat or joy. Lafayette bent and kissed her hand. This time, applause rent the air, for the meanest there did homage to beauty and womanhood.
"Strange people:" muttered the Austrian: "but what about my Lifeguards--can you do nothing for them?"