"And their beautiful queen," † added Julia.
"And carry the head of a young princess ‡ on a pole, with her fair hair floating around it."
"Oh! I would have had no mercy on such murderers!" exclaimed Louis, striking his fist upon the table. "If I had been a general at the head of twenty thousand men, I'd soon have cleared Paris of them! I'd have rode them down, and cut them to pieces!"
"O Louis!" exclaimed Jessy and Julia; while Bella whispered to Willy, "It would have been no more than they deserved!"
Mrs. Gore looked shocked, the old lady sighed; but Mr. Presgrave, who had been glancing over Willy's tale, quietly raised his hand for silence, and commenced his reading without an observation.
* Louis XVI., a prince of mild and amiable disposition,
was guillotined, after a mock trial, by his own subjects in 1792.
† Marie Antoinette, the wife of Louis XVI.
‡ The Princess de Lamballe.
