They raised a cry of joy when they saw me. Maître Duplay, who had been with the National Guard of the Quartier St. Honoré, fancied that he saw me at the door of the royal carriage, by the side of the grenadiers; but the thing appeared so improbable, that he had told it to his family more as a delusion than a fact. Scarcely was I recognised, than the two girls immediately made a space for me between them. This was the more easy, as the elder apprentice was absent, leaving only the one enamoured of Mdlle. Cornelie, Félicién Herda. I did not want much pressing to sit down; I was literally dying of hunger and thirst. The young girls wished to ask me questions; but M. Duplay excused me until I had both eaten and drank. In a few minutes, I rejoined the supper eaters, and set myself to gratify the public curiosity. It was necessary for me to recount everything, omitting no details, from the moment when M. Drouet appeared to the King as a vision, on the top of the Hill des Réligieuses, to the moment when the carriage started from the house of the grocer, Sauce, and, lastly, to their arrival at the gate of the Tuileries. It can be easily understood with what avidity my tale was devoured, especially by the women. At that period, the women took a great interest in the Revolution: Madame Duplay, Mdlle. Cornelie, and Mdlle. Estelle made me repeat the same details over and over again; and, though they had a sigh for Madame Elizabeth, the Queen was ever an Austrian—that is to say, an enemy. It was now eleven o’clock. Duplay, bursting with the news which I brought him, resolved to go to the Jacobin Club. There was no doubt but that, in consequence of the great events taking place, the club would, despite the late hour, be holding a sitting. He asked me if I would like to accompany him; but, indefatigable though I was, I asked his permission to retire to repose. They gave me Dumont’s chamber, which was vacant, on account of its owner having left the shop some eight days previously. The ladies undertook to arrange the bed draperies, and perform all the little offices which come so gratefully from a woman’s tender hand and kind heart. Félicién commenced by scowling at me; but when he perceived that upon Estelle, by tacit consent, fell the greater share of the labor on my account, his brow gradually relaxed. Duplay set out for his club. They then informed me that my chamber was ready. It was the first time for four nights that I had slept in a bed, so you may imagine that I stood upon no ceremony. I made a hurried bow to all, rushed up to my room; and, on arriving there, blessed Madame Duplay for the quantity of water and towels that she had left me—as it required plenty of both to rid me of that accursed dust of Champagne, with which I seemed to be perfectly coated. I jumped into bed, and, in a second, fell into the most profound sleep.