Durler lowered his head with a sigh, but he insisted on a written order. The king scribbled on a paper: "The king orders the Swiss to lay down their arms and return into barracks."
This was what voices were crying throughout the Tuileries, on the stairs, and in the rooms and halls. As this order restored some quiet to the House, the speaker rang his bell and called for the debating to be resumed.
A member rose and pointed out that an article of the Constitution forbade debates in the king's presence.
"Quite so," said the king; "but where are you going to put us?"
"Sire," said the speaker, "we can give you the room and box of the 'Logographe,' which is vacant owing to the sheet having ceased to appear."
The ushers hastened to show the party where to go, and they had to retrace some of the path they had used to enter.
"What is this on the floor?" asked the queen. "It looks like blood!"
The servants said nothing; for while the spots might be blood, they were ignorant where they came from.
Strange to say, the stains grew larger and nearer together as they approached the box. To spare her the sight, the king quickened the pace, and opening the box door himself, he bid her enter.