"Why, father?"
"The palsy is coming upon me—I can feel it coming, and here I would die."
"Oh, father, return with me, for my sake!"
"Well, help me, then."
She lifted him, and they went back slowly to the street.
The city was deserted. The people were out to the hill. There was a crackling of dry boards in the bonfire, and the flame grew redder and redder, higher and higher.
They came to the State House. The old man looked up. The face of the house was bare; the king's arms were gone.
He sank down on the step of an empty house and began to tremble. He took out his silver snuffbox and held it shaking.
"For Queen Charlotte's sake, daughter," he said.
She touched the box, to please him.