Almost breathless as he opened the door, he appeared relieved only when he saw the Royal Family. A smile of vengeance flittered over his face and without troubling about the other persons around the room and by the doorway itself, which he almost blocked up with his massive form, he thundered as he stretched out his hand:
"In the name of the National Assembly, you are all my prisoners!"
As swift as thought Choiseul sprang forward with a pistol in hand and offered to blow out the brains of this intruder, who seemed to surpass in insolence and resolution all they had met before. But the Queen stopped the menacing hand with a still swifter action and said in an undertone to the count:
"Do not hasten our ruin! prudence, my lord! let us gain time for Bouille to arrive."
"You are right," said Choiseul, putting up the firearm.
The Queen glanced at Charny whom she had thought would have been the first to intervene: but, astonishing thing! Charny seemed not to want the new-comer to notice him, and shrank into the darkest corner apparently in that end.
But she did not doubt him or that he would step out of the mystery and shadow at the proper time.
The threatening move of the nobleman against the representative of the National Assembly had passed over without the latter appearing to remark his escape from death.
Besides, another emotion than fear seemed to monopolize his heart: there was no mistaking his face's expression; so looks the hunter who has tracked to the den of the lion, the lioness and their cubs, with their jackals,—amongst whom was devoured his only child!