La Comtesse De Charny, Vol. 4 of 4 (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from La Comtesse De Charny, Vol. 4 of 4 The dispersal of the crowd was as quiet and gradual as the invasion had been boisterous and alarming. Astonished at the meagre results of their day's work, the rioters began to say to one another: "We accomplished nothing. We shall have to go back again." Those who had fancied they could foresee what would happen, had judged the king by his reputation. They remembered how this monarch had appeared at Varennes clad like an upper servant, and prophesied that at the first intimation of danger Louis would hide under a table or in some closet or behind a curtain, and that somebody would stab him as if by accident, and then get off by saying, "How now I A rat?" as Hamlet says in the play when he slays Polonius behind the arras, thinking it is the tyrant of Denmark. The result, as far as Louis was concerned, had been quite the opposite. Never had the king appeared so calm, or, rather, so truly great. The insult had been colossal, but it had not exceeded his resignation or powers of endurance. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.