The Court, alternately yielding and resisting, a mixture of obstinacy and weakness, of hectoring and fear, allowed itself to be bullied by Mirabeau[314], who demanded that the troops should be removed to a distance, and yet did not consent to remove them: it accepted the affront and did not remove the cause of it. In Paris a rumor spread that an army was arriving through the Montmartre sewer, that the dragoons were about to force the barriers. It was suggested to take up the street pavements, to carry the paving-stones to the top floors of the houses, in order to hurl them upon the tyrant's satellites: every one set to work. In the midst of this turmoil M. Necker was ordered to resign. The new ministry consisted of M. de Breteuil[315], La Galaizière, the Maréchal de Broglie[316], La Vauguyon, La Porte[317] and Foullon[318]. These replaced Messieurs de Montmorin[319], de La Luzerne[320], de Saint-Priest[321] and de Nivernais[322]. A Breton poet, newly landed, had asked me to take him to Versailles. There are people who will go to see gardens and fountains amid the downfall of empires: scribblers especially possess this faculty of isolating themselves in their hobby during the course of the greatest events; with them, their phrase or their strophe fills the place of everything. I took my Pindar to the gallery at Versailles at mass-time. The Œil-de-Boeuf was radiant: M. Necker's dismissal had raised the spirits of all; they felt sure of victory: possibly Sanson[323] and Simon[324] were among the crowd, witnessing the delight of the Royal Family. [Sidenote: Marie Antoinette.] The Queen passed by with her two children; their fair hair appeared to be waiting for crowns: Madame la Duchesse d'Angoulême[325], aged eleven, drew all eyes through a virginal pride; beautiful through nobility of birth and maidenly innocence, she seemed to say, like Corneille's orange-blossom in the _Guirlande de Julie_: J'ai la pompe de ma naissance[326]. [Illustration: Marie Antoinette.] The little Dauphin[327] walked under his sister's protection, and M. Du Touchet followed his pupil; he noticed me, and obligingly called the Queen's attention to me. Casting a smiling look in my direction, she gave me that gracious bow which she had already made me on the day of my presentation. I shall never forget that look, so soon to be extinguished. Marie Antoinette, when she smiled, outlined so clearly the shape of her mouth, that the recollection of that smile (O horror!) enabled me to recognize the jaw-bone of the daughter of kings when the head of the unhappy woman was discovered in the exhumations of 1815. The counter-stroke to the blow struck at Versailles resounded in Paris. On my return I came upon a crowd hastening along and carrying the busts of M. Necker and of M. le Duc d'Orléans[328], covered with crape. They cried, "Long live Necker! Long live the Duc d'Orléans!" and among those cries was heard one bolder and more unforeseen: "Long live Louis XVII.!"