CHAPTER XVI.
THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE.
The room was crammed with strangers and National Guards whom curiosity had drawn into it.
The Queen was therefore checked in her first impulse which was to rush to the new arrival, sponge away the blood with her handkerchief and address him some of the comforting words which spring from the heart, and therefore go to them.
But she could not help rising a little on her seat, extend her arms towards him and mutter his Christian name.
Calm and gloomy, he waved his hand to the strangers and in a soft but firm voice, said:
"You will excuse me, but I have business with their Majesties."
The National Guard began to remonstrate that they were there to prevent anybody talking with the prisoners, but Charny pressed his bloodless lips, frowned, opened his riding coat to show that he carried pistols, and repeated in a voice as gentle as before but twice as menacing: