"Gentlemen, I have already had the honor to tell you that I have private business with the King and the Queen."
At the same time he waved them to go out. On this voice, and the mastery Charny exercised over others, Damas and the two bodyguards resumed their energy, temporarily impaired, and cleared the room by driving the gapers and volunteer soldiers before them.
The Queen now comprehended what use this man would have been in the royal carriage instead of Lady Tourzel, whom she had let etiquette impose on them.
Charny glanced round to make sure that only the faithful were at hand, and said as he went nearer Marie Antoinette:
"I am here, my lady. I have some seventy hussars at the town gate. I believe I can depend on them. What do you order me to do?"
"Tell us first what has happened you, my poor Charny?" she said in German.
He made a sign towards Malden whom he knew to understand the speaker's language.
"Alas, not seeing you, we thought you were dead," she went on in French.
"Unhappily, it is not I but my brother who is slain—poor Isidore! but my turn is coming."