de Necker had lasted about an hour and a half. Gilbert re-entered Paris at a quarter past nine o’clock, drove straight to the post-house, ordered horses and a post-chaise; and while Billot and Pitou were gone to rest themselves, after their fatigue, in a small hotel in the Rue Thiroux, where Billot generally put up when he came to Paris, Gilbert set off at a gallop on the road to Versailles. He arrived at Versailles at naif-past ten; in ordinary times, every one would have been in bed and wrapped in the profoundest slumber; but that night no eye was closed at Versailles. They had felt the counter-shock of the terrible concussion with which Paris was still trembling, and were anxious to ascertain how the King of France would reply to the insult offered to the throne, and the deadly wound inflicted on his power. To narrow-minded and short-sighted persons the question seemed easy of solution. In the eyes of military men in particular, who were accustomed to see nothing more than the triumph or defeat of brute force in the result of events, it was merely necessary to march upon Paris.
