But if she kept her jailers on the alert, they also frightened her. She had a dream of scenes of violence, for they had always turned against her.
She waited with anxiety for her envoy's return, for the mobs might have overturned this old, decrepit, trimming Assembly of which Barnave had promised the help, and which might now want help itself.
The door opened: she turned her eyes swiftly thither, but instead of her foster-brother, it was Dr. Gilbert, with his stern face.
She did not like this royalist whose constitutional ideas made him a republican almost; but she felt respect for him; she would not have sent him in any strait, but she submitted to his influence when by.
"You, doctor?" she said with a shiver.
"It is I, madam. I bring you more precise news than those you expect by Weber. He was on the side of the Seine where no blood was spilt, while I was where the slaughter was committed. A great misfortune has taken place—the court party has triumphed."
"Oh, you would call this a misfortune, doctor!"
"Because the triumph is one of those which exhaust the victor and lay him beside the dead. Lafayette and Bailly have shot down the people, so that they will never be able to serve you again; they have lost their popularity."
"What were the people doing when shot down?"
"Signing a petition demanding the removal of the King."