"Long live the King!" was the universal shout. "Come to Paris:" added others. While a few, but the most dreadful ones: "Let us have the Queen out here!"
All shivered; the King lost color as did Gilbert and Charny.
She looked at Lafayette, who said:
"Fear nothing!"
With the charming manners he preserved to old age, Marquis Lafayette gently detached the clinging children from their mother and urged them out upon the balcony. He offered his hand to Marie Antoinette, adding:
"If your Majesty will rely on me, all will go well."
He led her out on the balcony above the Marble Courtyard, a sea of enflamed human heads. The yell that burst forth at sight of the Queen was immense but none could say whether it was threat or joy. Lafayette bent and kissed her hand. This time, applause rent the air, for the meanest there did homage to beauty and womanhood.
"Strange people:" muttered the Austrian: "but what about my Lifeguards—can you do nothing for them?"
"Let me have one of them."