On this signal the Body Guards, pages, and equerries mounted on horseback, and all was ready for setting off.

The Dauphin was with the Dauphiness.

They were expecting together the intelligence of the death of Louis XV.

A dreadful noise, absolutely like thunder, was heard in the outer apartment; it was the crowd of courtiers who were deserting the dead sovereign's antechamber, to come and do homage to the new power of Louis XVI.

This extraordinary tumult informed Marie Antoinette and her husband that they were called to the throne; and, by a spontaneous movement, which deeply affected those around them, they threw themselves on their knees; both, pouring forth a flood of tears, exclaimed: "O God! guide us, protect us; we are too young to reign." The Comtesse de Noailles entered, and was the first to salute Marie Antoinette as Queen of France.