Page:An adventure (1911).pdf/137

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A RÊVERIE
127

were with them, and at first other royalists were allowed to bring them news and to pass in and out, but this was stopped in the course of the day.

From Dufour's account it would seem that no one was busying themselves to supply their wants until he undertook to do so the next day.[1] A draught of water brought to them in their cells at night to quench their raging thirst is all that he speaks of. If the story of the King eagerly devouring food in public is true (and it is impossible to believe that the children had nothing), yet it is doubtful whether the Queen, who had had no rest the night before, had any food during the day.

What a tumult of disgust, fears, indignation, and overwhelming regrets must have occupied the Queen's mind! It was difficult enough to maintain an outwardly calm, queenly demeanour; her thoughts must have been confused, half formed, reflecting the agitation of despair and anxiety. She knew only too well that she was looked upon as the political enemy of the crowd for reasons that were not altogether untrue. She had had a policy incon-

  1. Marie Antoinette, Lenotre, p. 13.