"Madame," he said, "it is you and not the king who run the real danger. Rightly or wrongly, they accuse you of the king's resistance, so that your presence will expose him without defending him. Be the lightning-conductor—divert the bolt, if you can!"
"Then let it fall on me, but save my children!"
"I have answered for you and them to the king. Follow me."
He said the same to Princess Lamballe, who had returned lately from London, and the other ladies, and guided them to the Council Hall, where he placed them in a window recess, with the heavy table before them.
The queen stood behind her children—Innocence protecting Unpopularity, although she wished it to be the other way.
"All is well thus," said Gilbert, in the tone of a general commanding a decisive operation; "do not stir."
There came a pounding at the door, which he threw open with both folds, and as he knew there were many women in the crowd, he cried:
"Walk in, citizenesses; the queen and her children await you."
The crowd burst in as through a broken dam.