The commissioners again remained silent.
"Come, gentlemen, speak," said Charles X.
"Sire, we have come from the Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom, to warn your Majesty that the people of Paris are marching upon Rambouillet."
"But my grandson?... Henri V.?" exclaimed Charles X.
For the third time, the commissioners made no reply.
"His rights cannot be challenged, surely," Charles X. resumed with vehemence; "his rights are reserved by my act of abdication; I have fifteen thousand men round me ready to die to preserve his rights!... Answer me, gentlemen! By all that France holds dear, I adjure you to answer me!"
Marshal Maison made a backward movement, in distress at the sight of the overwhelming grief that revealed itself on the old man's countenance.
"Sire," said Odilon Barrot, "you must not found the throne of your grandson on bloodshed."
"And," added Marshal Maison, "may the king ponder on the fact of sixty thousand men marching towards Rambouillet!"
The king stopped short in front of Marshal Maison and, after a moment's silence, he said—