midnight
Meantime , he contrived to make the march so slow , as that he and his thirty thousand followers were nine hours going the twelve miles to Versailles . Lest the royal family should not be gone , as he hoped , he made the crowd halt on the ridge of the hill which overlooked Versailles , and swear , with their right hands lifted up towards heaven , to respect the king 's dwelling , and be faithful to the orders of the Assembly they themselves had chosen . Unhappily , all he did was of little use . He arrived at near midnight ; but another mob -- a mob of women , savage because their children were hungry -- had been in possession of Versailles since three in the afternoon . Though it became rainy during the latter half of the day , so that the thousands out of doors were all wet to the skin , the morning had been fair ; and the king went out hunting , as usual , while the queen spent the morning at her favourite little estate of Trianon . The Dauphin was at home , with his new governess , the Marchioness de Tourzel , little dreaming , poor child , that there were people already on the road from Paris who wanted to make him a king instead of his father . One of the ministers hearing unpleasant rumours , took horse , and went to try to find the king .