the same calm, so that they might not be reproached with having given way to any excess during a fete Civique. . . . But to return to the Queen, whom I left being forced back, against her will, to my nephew's apartment. . . . She did everything in the world to return to the King, but MM. de Choiseul and de Hauteville and our women who were there prevented her. . . . The Grenadiers entered the Council Chamber, and put her and the children behind the Table. The Grenadiers and others who were much attached to them, surrounded them, and the crowd passed before them. A woman put a red cap on the Queen's head and on my nephew's. The King had one almost from the first. Santerre, who led the file, harangued her, and told her people had misled her in saying that the people did not love her; they did, and he could assure her she had nothing to fear. 'One never fears anything when one is with good people,' she replied, holding out her hand at the same time to the grenadiers near her, who all threw themselves upon it to kiss it. It was very touching. ... A real deputation arrived to see the King, and as I heard this and did not wish to remain in the crowd, I left an hour before he did. I rejoined the Queen, and you can guess with what pleasure I embraced her." After the Demonstration of 20 June, Élisabeth as well as the king reportedly despaired for the future "as an abyss from which they could only escape by a miracle of Providence," but she continued to act as the king's political adviser, and Mme de Lage de Volude described her state at this point: "She spends her days in prayer and in devouring the best books on our situation. She is full of noble and generous sentiments: her timidity changes to firmness when it is a question of speaking to the King and of informing him as to the state of things." The royal court was warned that there would be an attack on the palace, and royalist noblemen gathered there to defend the royal family on 9 August, sleeping everywhere they could find a place. During the following day, awaiting the attack, the queen, accompanied by the royal children, Elisabeth and the princesse