'
'And because it involves the Cardinal you are vituperated,' I said.
'The Court ought to reward your faithfulness.'
'So I thought once, but it is more likely to reward our resistance in
its own fashion if its triumph be once secured,' he answered. 'Ah,
Madame, are visions of hope for one's country mere madness?'
And certainly I felt that even when peace was made between him and my
sister, as it certainly soon would be, the future looked very black
before them, unless he were too obscure for the royal thunderbolts to
reach.
However, the mob had passed by, to shriek round the Hotel de Ville.
Food and wine were dealt out to them by those who used them as their
tools, and they were in a frightful state of demoralization, but the
way was clear for the present, and Clement Darpent would not be
denied walking by my chair, though he could hardly have guarded me,
but he took me through some by-streets, which avoided the haunts of
the mob; and though he came no further than our door, the few words I
ventured to bring home reassured Eustace, and made Annora look like
another being.
CHAPTER XXXI
PORTE ST. ANTOINE
(Margaret's Narrative)
When I try to look back on the time that followed, all is confusion.
I cannot unravel the threat of events clearly in my own mind, and can
only describe a few scenes that detach themselves, as it were, from a
back-ground of reports, true and false, of alarms, of messages to and
fro, and a horrible mob surging backwards and forwards, so that when
Mademoiselle returned to Paris and recalled me, I could only pass
backwards and forwards between the Louvre and the Hotel de Nidemerle
after the servants had carefully reconnoitred to see that the streets
were safe, and this although I belonged to the Orleans'
establishment, which was in favour with the mob.
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