Page:The Mystery of Madeline Le Blanc (1900).djvu/73

Rh heard. I crawled out of the hole about daybreak."

"We are warranted now in breaking into the house; and we shall do so to-night," said the prefect, dismissing the officer.

The news had come that there was fighting in Paris, that the People were bombarding the city from behind ramparts and barricades, and that the King remained in retreat at Saint Cloud. In vain had Marshal Marmont sent courier after courier asking the monarch to pacify the people. He did nothing. The Marshal went himself. The King listened patiently, then said calmly, "Then it is really a revolt?"

"No, sir," replied Marmont, "it is not a revolt, but a revolution!"

Then everything turned to confusion in the royal house.

The police officers of the town from which Joseph's company had marched were supposed to be supporters of the existing régime; but in their hearts they were glad that the People were tearing the royal robes. Fifteen years had passed since Waterloo, and the desire for some