The deputies went and came, and were well mobbed everywhere. The
Coadjutor and Duke of Beaufort barely restrained the populace from
flying at the throat of the First President, who they fancied had
been bribed to give them up. One wretch on the steps of the Palais
de Justice threatened to kill the fine old man, who calmly replied,
'Well, friend, when I am dead I shall want nothing but six feet of
earth.'
The man fell back, daunted by his quietness, and by the majesty of
his appearance in his full scarlet robes. These alarms, the
continual shouting in the streets, and the growing terror lest on the
arrival of the Court all the prominent magistrates should be arrested
and sent to the Bastille, infinitely aggravated President Darpent's
disorder. We no longer saw his son every day, for he was wholly
absorbed in watching by the sick-bed, and besides there was no
further need, as he averred, of his watching over us. However, Sir
Francis went daily to inquire at the house, and almost always saw
Clement, who could by this time speak English enough to make himself
quite intelligible, but who could only say that, in spite of
constantly being let blood, the poor old man grew weaker and weaker;
and on the very day the treaty was signed he was to receive the last
rites of the Church.
CHAPTER XX
CONDOLENCE
(By Margaret)
Our siege was over at last. I can hardly explain how or why, for
there was no real settlement of the points at issue.
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