“However, the Paris National Guard, wholly under arms, has cleared the Palace, and even occupies the nearer external spaces, extruding miscellaneous patriotism, for the most part, into the grand court, or even into the forecourt. The body-guards, you can observe, have now of a verity hoisted the national cockade, for they step forward to the windows or balconies, hat aloft in hand, on each hat a huge tricolor, and fling over their bandoleers in sign of surrender, and shout, _Vive la nation!_ To which how can the generous heart respond but with, _Vive le roi! vivent les gardes-du-corps!_ His Majesty himself has appeared with La Fayette on the balcony, and again appears. _Vive le roi!_ greets him. Her Majesty, too, on demand, shows herself, though there is peril in it. ‘Should I die,’ she said, ‘I will do it.’ She stands there alone, her hands serenely crossed on her breast. Such serenity of heroism has its effect. La Fayette, with ready wit, in his highflown, chivalrous way, takes that fair, queenly hand and, reverently kneeling, kisses it; thereupon the people do shout, _Vive la reine!_ “So that all, and the queen herself, nay, the very captain of the body-guards, have grown national! The very captain of the body-guards steps out now with La Fayette. On the hat of the repentant man is an enormous tricolor, large as a soup platter or sunflower, visible to the utmost forecourt. He takes the national oath with a loud voice, elevating his hat; at which sight all the army raise their bonnets on their bayonets, with shouts. Sweet is reconciliation to the heart of man. La Fayette has sworn Flandre; he swears the remaining body-guards down in the Marble Court; the people clasp them in their arms: O my brothers, why would ye force us to slay you? Behold, there is joy over you, as over returning prodigal sons! The poor body-guards, now national and tricolor, exchange bonnets, exchange arms; there shall be peace and fraternity. And still, ‘_Vive le roi!_’ and also, ‘_Le roi à Paris!_’ [Illustration: THE KING COMES TO THE HÔTEL DE VILLE.] “Yes, _the king to Paris_; what else? Ministers may consult, and national deputies wag their heads; but there is now no other possibility. You have forced him to go willingly. ‘At one o’clock!’ La Fayette gives audible assurance to that purpose; and universal insurrection, with immeasurable shout and a discharge of all the firearms, clear and rusty, great and small, that it has, returns him acceptance. What a sound! heard for leagues! a doom-peal! That sound, too, rolls away into the silence of ages. And the Château of Versailles stands ever since vacant, hushed, still, its spacious courts grass grown, responsive to the hoe of the weeder. Times and generations roll on, in their confused gulf-current, and buildings, like builders, have their destiny.” CHAPTER VI.