When the morning of 6 October had come, Lafayette addressed the crowd,
promising them that they should be provided for, and, at the critical
moment, there appeared at his side on the balcony of the palace the
royal family--the king, the little prince, the little princess, and the
queen--all wearing red-white-and-blue cockades. A hush fell upon the
mob. The respected general leaned over and gallantly kissed the hand of
Marie Antoinette. A great shout of joy went up. Apparently even the
queen had joined the Revolution. The Parisians were happy, and
arrangements were made for the return journey.
[Sidenote: Forcible Removal of the Court and Assembly from Versailles
to Paris]
The procession of 6 October from Versailles to Paris was more curious
and more significant than that of the preceding day in the opposite
direction. There were still the women and the National Guardsmen and
Lafayette on his white horse and a host of people of the slums, but
this time in the midst of the throng was a great lumbering coach, in
which rode Louis and his wife and children, for Paris now insisted that
the court should no longer possess the freedom of Versailles in which
to plot unwatched against the rights of the French people.
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