"I believe you would be the only one," she replied, stifling a sigh. "Not even my father would do that. But you are no longer at La Thierry. What are you doing here, and what sent you away from home? Are you going back?"
Tournay shook his head. "There are reasons," he replied slowly, "why I can never return."
"Neither can Marianne Froment," rejoined the girl. "Therefore, compatriot, drink with me to our future good comradeship. And pass the bottle to your neighbor. Then let us go on together. En avant, my friends," she cried out in a loud voice. "The sooner we start again the earlier we shall reach our bakery. Follow the carriage of La Demoiselle Liberté, and she will lead you to it."
A score of brawny arms grasped the ropes attached to the truck, and with a heavy rattle the cannon was drawn through the crowd, which cheered it on its way.
The forty thousand swept into Versailles in an overpowering tide, finding nothing to stop their triumphant course.
The crowd choked up the streets of the town, filling the public square and invading the Assembly chamber.
The Assembly, with all the gravity and dignity of its recent birth, rose to its feet to greet as many of the Paris deputation as could crowd into the room, steaming with the sweat and dust of the march. Outside the door another crowd remained, clamoring noisily.
The president of the Assembly addressed them in a few words full of dignity. "I have just learned," he said in his quiet way, "that the king has been pleased to accord his royal sanction to all the articles of the Bill of Popular Rights which was passed by your Assembly on the 5th of August."
"Will that give the people more bread?" asked La Demoiselle, looking up at Tournay with an inquiring expression in her brown eyes. Despite her red cap, her swagger, and her boisterous talk, she was very pretty and child-like. As he looked down upon her standing by his side her brown head did not reach his shoulder.
"Whether it gives them bread or not, it is a glorious thing for the people," exclaimed Tournay with enthusiasm.