"And that settles my doubts too," said Lepitre. "I should think two official guards would suffice, for it is plain that she cannot escape. Simon is on the look-out, and it is plain that the she-wolf cannot transform herself into an eagle."
"Well said," laughed Simon; "here we are before the door, let's go in and have our fun."
He dashed the door open noisily, and went into the room with the two men. Two officials were sitting in the middle of the room at the table, and were actively engaged playing cards. Through the open door you could look into the sitting-room of the Capet family. The queen was sitting on the divan behind the round table, clothed in her sad suit of mourning, with a black cap upon her gray locks.
She was busy in dictating an exercise to the dauphin from a book which she held in her hand. The prince, also clad in black and with a broad crape about his arm, sat upon a chair by her side. His whole attention was directed to his work, and he was visibly making an effort to write as well as possible, for a glowing red suffused hia cheeks.
On the other side of the queen sat Madame Elizabeth; near her the Princess Maria Theresa, both busy in preparing some clothing for the queen.
No one of the group appeared to notice the loud opening of the door, no one observed the entering forms, or cast even a momentary glance at them.
But Toulan was not contented with this; he demanded nothing less than that the she-wolf should look at him. He hurried through the anteroom with a threatening tread, advanced to the door of the sitting-room, and stopped upon the threshold, making such a deep and ceremonious bow, and swinging his arm so comically, that Simon was compelled to laugh aloud.
"Madame," cried Toulan, "I have the inexpressible honor of greeting your grace."
"He is a brick, a perfect brick," roared Simon.
Lepitre had gone to the window, and turned his back upon the room; he was perhaps too deficient in spirit to join in the joke. Nobody paid any attention to him; nobody saw him take a little packet from his coat-pocket, and slide it slowly and carefully behind the wooden box that stood beneath the window.
"Madame," cried Toulan, in a still louder voice, "I fear your grace has not heard my salutation."
The queen slowly raised her eyes, and turned them to the man who was still standing upon the threshold. "I heard it," she said, coldly, "go on writing, my son." And she went on in the sentence that she had just then begun to dictate.
"I am so happy at being heard by Madame Veto that I shall have to celebrate it by a little bonfire!"--said Toulan, taking a cigar from his breast-pocket. "You see, my friends, that I am a very good courtier, though I have the honor to be a sans-culottes. In the presence of handsome ladies I only smoke cigars! Hallo! bring me a little fire."
One of the officials silently passed him his long pipe. Toulan lighted his cigar, placed himself at the threshold, and blew great clouds of smoke into the chamber.
The ladies still continued to sit quietly without paying any attention to Toulan. The queen dictated, and the dauphin wrote. The queen only interrupted herself in this occupation, when she had to cough and wipe her eyes, which the smoke filled with tears.
Toulan had followed every one of her movements with an amused look.
"Madame does not appear to take any pleasure in my bonfire!" he said. "Will madame not smoke?"
The queen made no reply, but quietly went on with her dictation.
"Madame," cried Toulan, laughing loudly, "I should like to smoke a pipe of peace with you, as our brown brethren in happy, free America do--madame, I beg you to do me the honor to smoke a pipe of peace with me."
A flash lightened in the eyes which the queen now directed to Toulan. "You are a shameless fellow!" she said.
"Hear that," said Simon, "that is what I call abusing you."
"On the contrary, it delights me," cried Toulan, "for you will confess that it would be jolly if she should smoke now, and I tell you, she will smoke."
He advanced some paces into the room, and made his deep bow again.
"He understands manners as well as if he had been a rascally courtier himself," said Simon, laughing. "It is a splendid joke."
The two princesses had arisen at the entrance of Toulan, and laid their sewing-work aside. A ball of white cotton had fallen to the ground from the lap of one of them, and rolled through the room toward Toulan.
He picked it up, and bowed to the princesses. "May I view this little globe," he said, "as a reminder of the favor of the loveliest ladies of France? Oh, yes, I see in your roguish smile that I may, and I thank you," said Toulan, pressing the round ball to his lips, and then putting it into his breast-pocket.
"He plays as well as the fellows do in the theatre," said Simon, laughing.
"Go into our sleeping-room," said Marie Antoinette, turning to the princesses. "It is enough for me to have to bear these indignities--go, my son, accompany your aunt."
The dauphin stood up, pressed a kiss upon the hand of his mother, and followed the two princesses, who had gone into the adjoining apartment.
"Dear aunt," whispered the dauphin, "is this bad man the good friend who--"
"Hush!" whispered Madame Elizabeth, "hush! Madame Tison is listening."
And, in fact, at the glass-door, which led from the sleeping-room to the little corridor, stood Madame Tison, looking with sharp, searching glances into the chamber.
After the princesses had left the room, Toulan approached still closer to the queen, and taking a cigar from his breast-pocket, he handed it to the queen. "Take it, madame," he said, "and do me the honor of smoking a duet with me!"
"I do not smoke, sir," replied the queen, coolly and calmly. "I beg you to go into the anteroom. The Convention has not, so far as I understand, ordered the officers of the guard to tarry in my sitting-room."
"The Convention has not ordered it, nor has it forbidden it. So I remain!"