“That is my affair,” said the Duc. “Dear lady, methinks I heard you say that you have some carpentry work to be done in your apartments. I, for my part, have several orders to give Duplay. Let him be brought up, M. Laclos: we will give him our commands ourselves. Let him pass through the _salle-à-manger_, and there he can drink a health to the nation, in a glass of wine, with these young gentlemen.” Thus was the affair arranged. I told the Duc de Chartres, while breakfasting with him, all that related to our hunting expeditions in the Forest of Argonne, to my education, the death of Pére Descharmes, my sojourn at Varennes, the arrest of the King, and the return to Paris. “You are only half-armed, my dear M. Réné,” said the Duc de Chartres, when leaving me. “My cousin of Enghien gave you a gun: allow me to present you with a pair of pistols.” He then took down a pair from a trophy—they were of Versailles manufacture—and insisted on my accepting them, as they matched my gun in pattern. When I say insisted, perhaps I exaggerated a little, as nothing could give me greater pleasure than to accept his present. As for Duplay, he received an order of the value of 5,000 francs, and drank with the Duc de Chartres to the health of the nation, so that he returned home in the best of spirits, rejoiced to have combined, in his morning’s visit, pleasure and profit. CHAPTER XXXIX. TOUCHING THE PRINCESS LAMBALLE. It will easily be imagined that the event of which I am treating was the subject of conversation for fifteen days in the house of Duplay in which I was apprentice, in the place of Dumont. Félicién, seeing that I entertained for Mdlle. Cornelie and Mdlle. Estelle only such affection as every well-educated man ought to have for women, drew in his nails and teeth, and became as good a comrade towards me as it was possible for him to be. Still the revolution marched on with gigantic strides; the flight to Varennes having given it a terrible impetus. On the 27th and 28th June, the Assembly promulgated the following decrees:— “The gard du corps is disbanded. “The King will be given a guard, under the command of the commander of the Parisian National Guard, to contribute to his safety and well being. “The Queen will have a private guard of her own. “Upon the events of the 21st of June, the Assembly will nominate three commissioners, selected from their whole body, to receive the declaration of the King and Queen. “The sanction, the acceptance of the King, and all his legislative and executive functions, are suspended. “The ministers are authorized, each in his own department, and on his own responsibility, to assume the executive power.” The three commissioners were MM. Touche, Dandré, and Dupont. There was, therefore, as can be readily seen, positive suspension of the functions of royalty. This private guard of the Queen’s was a torment to her every day—every hour—every minute.