Chapter Twelve...
The women march.
October 5: A mob of angry Parisian women assembled at the Palais Royal. From here, they began a full day’s march to Versailles, on foot. I read that Louis-Philippe Joseph II, Duc d’Orleans, the king’s cousin, marched among them, dressed as a woman!
They went to Versailles to demand that King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette come to Paris to witness their hunger and poverty. They pleaded with Marie Antoinette to give them bread to help them feed their children. A rumor spread that when the queen was told the women had no bread, she replied, “Then, let them eat cake!” This made the women very angry.
The women stood waiting well into the night. In the pre-dawn hours, they broke into the palace. They made for the queen’s bedchamber. But she escaped through the servants’ passageways within the palace walls. They sacked Marie Antoinette’s rooms, breaking or stealing its precious contents.
The National Guard joined the women, beheading anyone who blocked the furies’ path. The women refused to leave Versailles unless the Royal family left with them. By morning, they were victorious.
On October 6, the king and queen, their two living children, and the king’s sister, Madame Elizabeth, were prisoners of the mob, en route in a crowded carriage to Paris. Their 12 hour parade to the Tuileries Palace left a trail of blood as the women held the heads of the king’s troops on pikes. They waved green tree branches as a symbol of the revolution. The royal family would never see Versailles again.
Chapter Thirteen...
The royal family attempts escape.
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Image:
Unknown. Triumph of the Parisian Army and the People, 18th c. Crédit photographique: Musée de la Révolution Françaises, Vizille, France, http://www.domaine-vizille.fr, Inv. MRF 1990-46-128.