"Such is my advice," answered the legal agent of the Commune, bowing.
"Come away, gentlemen; there is nothing more to be done here," said the king.
Uttering a sigh, the queen took up her son in her arms, and said to her ladies:
"Come, ladies, since it is the king's desire," which was as much as to say to the others, "Expect nothing more from me."
In the corridor where she would have to pass through, Mme. Campan was waiting. She whispered to her: "How I wish I dwelt in a tower by the sea!"
The abandoned attendants looked at each other and seemed to say, "Is this the monarch for whom we came here to die?"
Colonel Chesnaye understood this mute inquiry, for he answered:
"No, gentlemen, it was for royalty. The wearer of the crown is mortal, but the principle imperishable."
The queen's ladies were terrified. They looked like so many marble statues standing in the corners and along the lobbies.
At last the king condescended to remember those he was casting off. At the foot of the stairs, he halted.