They
knew they could arrive there unobserved--nobody, indeed, remarked their
absence.
The frivolous Parisians were, in the meanwhile, amusing themselves
at their theatres and cafes as usual; and a new piece, in which Arnal
performed, was the universal talk of the foyers: while a new feuilleton
by Monsieur Eugene Sue, kept the attention of the reader so fascinated
to the journal, that they did not care in the least for the vacarme
without the walls.
CHAPTER IX.
LOUIS XVII.
The tremendous cannonading, however, had a singular effect upon the
inhabitants of the great public hospital of Charenton, in which it may
be remembered Louis XVII. had been, as in mockery, confined. His majesty
of demeanor, his calm deportment, the reasonableness of his pretensions,
had not failed to strike with awe and respect his four thousand comrades
of captivity. The Emperor of China, the Princess of the Moon, Julius
Caesar, Saint Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, the Pope of Rome,
the Cacique of Mexico, and several singular and illustrious personages
who happened to be confined there, all held a council with Louis XVII.;
and all agreed that now or never was the time to support his legitimate
pretensions to the Crown of France. As the cannons roared around
them, they howled with furious delight in response.
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