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"Let us go at once to the National Assembly." "Sir," cried the queen, turning to Roderer, "is it true that we are deserted by all?" "Madame," answered the attorney-general, sadly, "all opposition is in vain, it will only increase the danger. Would you suffer yourself, the king, your children, and friends, to be killed?" "God forbid it! Would that I alone could be the offering!"
Napoleon had been in conference until the dawn of day with Talleyrand, Roderer, and Sieyes.
And now the noblemen and the grenadiers pressed up to take the king and queen in their escort. "For God's sake," cried Roderer, "no demonstration, or the king is lost! "Remain, my friends," said the king, stolidly, "await our return here." "We shall soon return," said Marie Antoinette; and leading her two children, she followed the king, who walked slowly through the hall.
The door was suddenly opened, and the attorney-general Roderer burst in. "Sire," cried he, with impassioned utterance, "you must save yourself! All opposition is vain. The cannoneers have already withdrawn the loading from the cannon, because they are unwilling to fire upon the people. The king has no time to lose.
The cork was drawn with a loud noise, the wine foamed and sparkled in the glasses, but, when the servant came to help me, I took the bottle from his hands to look at the label; for there is a difference in the fluid, and Röderer and Röderer is not always alike. There are certain symbolical marks on the bottles, well known to connoisseurs. On some is a bee, on others an ostrich or an elephant.
But Louis listened not to her, but to the solicitations of Roderer, who told him that he had but five minutes to save himself, the queen, and his children; that in five minutes more all would be lost. "It cannot be helped," muttered the king; and then with louder voice he continued: "It is my will that we be conducted into the Legislative Assembly; I command it!"
"Remove the shroud, please, and let me look at poor old Roderer. Thanks. How natural he tastes." Then to Lorelei: "The governor is a woman-hater; but, just the same, I'm glad you drew Merkle instead of him to-night, or there'd surely be a scandal in the Wharton family. No man is safe in range of your liquid orbs, Miss Knight, unless he has his marriage license sewed into his clothes.
I submit myself, M. Roderer," and then with louder tones, as if she wanted to call all present to be witnesses, she continued, "will you pledge yourself for the person of the king, and for that of my son?" "Madame," answered Roderer, solemnly, "I pledge myself for this, that we are all ready to die at your side. That is all that I can promise."
But Madame Elizabeth, the Princesses de Lamballe and de Tarent, begged her with tears to consent; the good king fixed on her sad, weeping eyes, and Roderer entreated her not to abandon, by her delays, to the approaching executioners, her husband, her children, and herself.
A cry, one single cry of grief, burst from the lips of the queen, and one moment her head sank upon her breast. "Hasten, hasten, sire!" cried Roderer, "every moment increases the peril. In a quarter of an hour perhaps the queen and the children will be lost beyond remedy!" These words awakened the king from his reverie. He looked up and nodded his head. "We can do nothing else," he said.
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