The king, moved by these tokens of affection, left his box and went round the table on the stage followed by the queen, who held her daughter by the hand, whilst the dauphin was carried by an officer of the guards. In the midst of the general enthusiasm, the band struck up the air of Grétry,--'O Richard, O mon roi! l'univers t'abandonne!' When the royal family retired, they were followed by the officers and soldiers drunk with enthusiasm and wine, and assembling in the marble court under the king's windows, they repeated their cheers, and promises to die in his defence. White cockades were distributed by the ladies of the court, and a national badge having been shown to the excited soldiers was greeted with scorn and was trampled under foot. Next day followed another feast, and a similar display of zeal for the cause of the queen against that of the nation. On the 4th, as might have been anticipated, Paris was in an uproar. The people felt instinctively that not a day was to be lost. The aristocracy might at any moment snatch the king from Versailles, carry him to a fortress, surround him with troops, and from thence make him dictate laws and destroy the scaffolding of the new constitution, in the erection of which the National Assembly was laboriously engaged. If the Court party were allowed to steal a march on the people, all was lost. The most inflammatory harangues in the Palais Royal assisted in exciting the general conflagration. The scenes preceding the seizure of the Bastille were renewed; but there was no fortress to be captured on this occasion,--it was the person of the king must be secured, that the democracy might place him in the revolutionary vortex, might keep watch over him, and disperse the clique which dragged him into schemes antagonistic to the wishes and welfare of the nation. On the morning of the 5th, all Paris was in movement; but that which determined its march on Versailles, was the famine. In spite of the efforts of the committee of subsistence established by Bailly, corn, and flour especially, arrived in small quantities. At four o'clock in the morning a crowd besieged the shops of the bakers. For hours the people remained patiently _en queue_; then they began to fight to obtain for money a loaf often insufficient to fill the mouths that clamoured for it at home. The wretched quality of the bread added to the fury of the populace. Little more was needed to produce an explosion. The account of the scenes which had been enacted at Versailles fell like a spark upon these inflammable tempers, and the fire blazed forth in an instant. 'Let us bring the baker among us!' cried Madeleine, who, like the rest, had been waiting for the morning's provision of bread. 'Yes, we must have the chief baker here,' shouted several others.