The sword of Damocles hung suspended over the head of the unfortunate king, and the throne was tottering, soon to be engulfed in hopeless ruin. On the morning of the 5th of October, a woman, frenzied with hunger, rushed into a guard-house, and seizing a drum, ran with it along the streets, accompanying her wild beating with the frantic cry of “Bread! bread!” As the crowd increases, every voice takes up the shrill shriek for bread, until at last the mad chorus changes to a furious clamor, and the words “To Versailles!” “_A Versailles!_“ ring out in hoarse yells from street to street, and the alarm bell sounds the direful tocsin which sends a knell of despair to every listener’s heart. The news of the riot reaches La Fayette, and he says: “As soon as the tidings reached me, I instantly perceived that, whatever might be the consequence of this movement, the public safety required that I should take part in it, and after having received from the Hôtel de Ville an order and two commissaries, I hastily provided for the security of Paris, and took the road to Versailles, at the head of several battalions.” [Illustration: THE CROWD SHOUT, “TO VERSAILLES.”] Alarmed lest the Guard themselves might be induced to join in the revolt, he halted on the way and made every one renew his oath of fidelity to the king and obedience to the law. A description of this momentous march is nowhere so quaintly and so graphically told as by Carlyle, who, in spite of certain sarcasms, seems to appreciate La Fayette’s difficult position, and surely it would seem as though only the grim irony of fate could have placed this Knight of Liberty in the midst of such lawless rioters: and yet, throughout all these trying circumstances, La Fayette is not once inconsistent to his avowed principles; and whether he sympathizes with the people’s wrongs, or endeavors to shield his king from their furious attacks, he is ever true to his principles of right and honor. And so we will let Carlyle take La Fayette to Versailles in his own inimitable way. “The Three Hundred have assembled; all the Committees are in activity; Lafayette is dictating despatches for Versailles, when a deputation of the Centre Grenadiers introduces itself to him. The deputation makes military obeisance; and thus speaks, not without a kind of thought in it: ‘_Mon Général_, we are deputed by the six companies of Grenadiers. We do not think you a traitor, but we think the government betrays you; it is time that this end. We cannot turn our bayonets against women crying to us for bread. The people are miserable; the source of the mischief is at Versailles; we must go seek the king, and bring him to Paris. We must exterminate [_exterminer_] the _Regiment de Flandre_ and the _Gardes-du-Corps_, who have dared to trample on the National Cockade. “‘If the king be too weak to wear his crown, let him lay it down. You will crown his son; you will name a Council of Regency, and all will go better.’