“Perhaps so, but you have been; and, whatever people may say, we are a family that never forget.”
At this moment the King arrived.
“Thank you, gentlemen; thank you,” said he to Barnave and Pétion. “I need not say to you that if you like to come up-stairs——”
“Sire,” replied Barnave, “your Majesty and her Majesty the Queen are at present in safety. We must go to render an account of our mission to the Assembly.”
They bowed to the King, and retired.
I did the same; that is to say, I bowed; but as I was retiring, Madame Elizabeth, pointing me out to the King, said, “My brother, this young man?”
She evidently, in her noble heart, did not wish me to go without some recompense.
“’Tis true,” said the King; “I forgot that he was your protegé.”
“Say, rather, that I am his protegé.”
He took me by the collar of my coat.