Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-26

q balcony. There seems little doubt that
1T had been the purpose of some to shoot
her when she showed herself. but they
hesitated to injure innocent children.
Away with the children!' called scores
of voices in unison. Knowing we'll what
she risked. Marie sent the children away,
and stood unprotected, a fair target for
the shot of any one of that maddened
and drunken throng. Her courage Lis-
armed her foes, and presently cries Of
''Vive la rein" C'long live the queen }
arose. The immediate peril was over.
The next day. surrounded by bowling,
execrating mob. the royal family was
driven in a state coach to Paris, lodged
in the Tulleries. the city palace of the
king, now his prison. Here every move
ment was spied upon. and Marie, unable
to throw off her hereditary belief that
royalty could do no wrong and that the
people were never right, began plotting
ecape, and to undermine the revolution
airy leaders. Austria was the hereditary
enemy of France. She was an Austrian
princess. Should she escape, the Austri-
ans would invade France. Clearly. she
must be kept a close prisoner. Not at
that moment did they think OF putting
her to death. Finally the royal family
undertook belated flight, but. like
everything that Louis and Marie under
took, the matter was bungled in every
possible way.
AT Varennese the great carriage in
after a brief and humiliating examination
they were turned back to Paris. Lodged
again in the Tuilleries, it was soon found
that there was no safety there for them.
The mob broke in, sacked the palace.
maSSacred the Swiss guards and would
have slaughtered the royal family had
not they taken refuge in the hall of the
national assembly. In day or two they
were removed for safety to the temple.
a gloomy fortress hardly less forbidding
hnv fhn pac ff~of 10 q.
refuge and they were we'll provided with
IiiXuries; later it was a prison, where
they froZe and starved
In this dungeon Marie was never eX-
the mob without crying: Marie An
toinette! Nine. Veto"' Stepping to the
window to see what was wanted, she was
rudely thrust back by a guard, who
closed the shutters. Indignant at first.
her mood changed when she found that
CORY head of her dearest friend, Nine.
Lamballe, impaled on a pike and held
against the bars Of the window from
which the guard had kept her. Not long
after her husband was taken to another
cell. to go thence to the guillotine. Her
children were removed, and of their fate
she remained ignorant until her sdeath.
Two guards were stationed in her cham
Der day and night. before whom she was
forced to perform the most delicate opera
tons of her toilet. There can be no
doubt that she welcomed the summons to
her trial and the inevitable call to execu-
ton the 18th of October. 1893.
On the scaffold Marie Antoinette bore
herself as every inch queen. AS was
said of Charles at his execution:
"She nothing common did nor mean
Upon that memorable scene"
Over the heads Of the yelling crowd,
past the group Of cold. knitting women
who sat in front at every execution. she
looked with clear, calm eyes toward eter>
nifty. Her only words were for her chill
dren-'Adieu. adieu! Once again. my dear
children. go to rejoin your father" The
AK fell, the headsman displayed the
dripping head. the body was rudely
thrown into the receptacle provided for
Lit. and the dynasty of the Bourbons was
blotted out. The visitor to Paris may, If
he WILL see in the records of the Church
of the Madeleine, built over the common
grave of many victims of the gufllotine,
this entry: For the coffin of the Widow
Capet, francs" Thus simply was the
daughter of one king ana the wife OF
other uttered