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MySQL High Availability
MySQL High Availability
Copyright © 2010 Charles Bell, Mats Kindahl, and Lars Thalmann. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472.
O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions
are also available for most titles (http://my.safaribooksonline.com). For more information, contact our
corporate/institutional sales department: 800-998-9938 or corporate@oreilly.com.
Printing History:
July 2010: First Edition.
Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O’Reilly logo are registered trademarks of
O’Reilly Media, Inc. MySQL High Availability, the image of an American robin, and related trade dress
are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc.
Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as
trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O’Reilly Media, Inc., was aware of a
trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps.
While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and authors assume
no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information con-
tained herein.
ISBN: 978-0-596-80730-6
[M]
1277482774
Table of Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Part I. Replication
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
What’s This Replication Stuff Anyway? 5
So, Backups Are Not Needed Then? 6
What’s with All the Monitoring? 7
Is There Anything Else I Can Read? 8
Conclusion 8
v
Scripting the Clone Operation 35
Performing Common Tasks with Replication 36
Reporting 37
Conclusion 43
vi | Table of Contents
Dual Masters 115
Semisynchronous Replication 124
Slave Promotion 127
Circular Replication 142
Conclusion 146
Table of Contents | ix
Conclusion 366
x | Table of Contents
High Availability Versus Disaster Recovery 412
Disaster Recovery 413
The Importance of Data Recovery 419
Backup and Restore 420
Backup Utilities and OS-Level Solutions 424
The InnoDB Hot Backup Application 425
Physical File Copy 428
The mysqldump Utility 430
XtraBackup 432
Logical Volume Manager Snapshots 432
Comparison of Backup Methods 437
Backup and MySQL Replication 438
Backup and Recovery with Replication 438
PITR 439
Automating Backups 446
Conclusion 449
Table of Contents | xi
AWS 487
A Brief Overview of Technologies 488
How Does It All Work? 492
Amazon Cloud Tools 492
Getting Started 496
Working with Disk 511
Where to Go from Here 516
MySQL in the Cloud 517
MySQL Replication and EC2 517
Best Practices for Using MySQL in EC2 520
Open Source Cloud Computing 522
Conclusion 523
A lot of research has been done on replication, but most of the resulting concepts are
never put into production. In contrast, MySQL replication is widely deployed but has
never been adequately explained. This book changes that. Things are explained here
that were previously limited to people willing to read a lot of source code and spend a
lot of time debugging it in production, including a few late-night sessions.
Replication enables you to provide highly available data services while enduring the
inevitable failures. There are an amazing number of ways for things to fail, including
the loss of a disk, server, or data center. Even when hardware is perfect or fully redun-
dant, people are not. Database tables will be dropped by mistake. Applications will
write incorrect data. Occasional failure is assured. But with reasonable preparation,
recovery from failure can also be assured. The keys to survival are redundancy and
backups. Replication in MySQL supports both.
But MySQL replication is not limited to supporting failure recovery. It is frequently
used to support read scale-out. MySQL can efficiently replicate to a large number of
servers. For applications that are read-mostly, this is a cost-effective strategy for sup-
porting a large number of queries on commodity hardware.
And there are other interesting uses for MySQL replication. Online DDL is a very com-
plex feature to implement in an relational database management system. MySQL does
not support online DDL, but through the use of replication you can implement some-
thing that is frequently good enough. You can get a lot done with replication if you are
willing to be creative.
Replication is one of the features that made MySQL wildly popular. It is also the feature
that allows you to convert a popular MySQL prototype into a successful business-
critical deployment. Like most of MySQL, replication favors simplicity and ease of use.
As a consequence, it is occasionally less than perfect when running in production. This
book explains what you need to know to successfully use MySQL replication. It will
help you to understand how replication has been implemented, what can go wrong,
how to prevent problems, and how to fix them when they crop up despite your best
attempts at prevention.
xv
MySQL replication is also a work in progress. Change, like failure, is also assured.
MySQL is responding to that change and replication continues to get more efficient,
more robust, and more interesting. For instance, row-based replication is new in
MySQL 5.1.
While MySQL deployments come in all shapes and sizes, I care most about data services
for Internet applications and am excited about the potential to replicate from MySQL
to distributed storage systems like HBase and Hadoop. This will make MySQL better
at sharing the data center.
I have been on teams that support important MySQL deployments at Facebook and
Google. I have had the opportunity, problems, and time to learn much of what is cov-
ered in this book. The authors of this book are also experts on MySQL replication, and
by reading this book you can share their expertise.
—Mark Callaghan
xvi | Foreword
Preface
The authors of this book have been creating parts of MySQL and working with it for
many years. Charles Bell is a senior developer working on replication and backup. His
interests include all things MySQL, database theory, software engineering, and agile
development practices. Dr. Mats Kindahl is the lead developer for replication and a
member of the MySQL Backup and Replication team. He is the main architect and
implementor of the MySQL row-based replication and has also developed the unit
testing framework used by MySQL. Dr. Lars Thalmann is the development manager
and technical lead of the MySQL Replication and Backup team and has designed many
of the replication and backup features. He has worked with development of MySQL
clustering, replication, and backup technologies.
We wrote this book to fill a gap we noticed among the many books on MySQL. There
are many excellent books on MySQL, but few that concentrate on its advanced features
and its applications, such as high availability, reliability, and maintainability. In this
book, you will find all of these topics and more.
We also wanted to make the reading a bit more interesting by including a running
narrative about a MySQL professional who encounters common requests made by his
boss. In the narrative, you will meet Joel Thomas, who recently decided to take a job
working for a company that has just started using MySQL. You will observe Joel as he
learns his way around MySQL and tackles some of the toughest problems facing
MySQL professionals. We hope you find this aspect of the book entertaining.
Audience
This book is for MySQL professionals. We expect you to have a basic background in
SQL, administering MySQL, and the operating system you are running. We will try to
fill in background information about replication, disaster recovery, system monitoring,
and other key topics of high availability. See Chapter 1 for other books that offer useful
background.
xvii
Organization of This Book
This book is written in three parts. Part I encompasses MySQL replication, including
high availability and scale-out. Part II examines monitoring and performance concerns
for building robust data centers. Part III examines some additional areas of MySQL,
including cloud computing and MySQL clusters.
Part I, Replication
Chapter 1, Introduction, explains how this book can help you and gives you a context
for reading it.
Chapter 2, MySQL Replication Fundamentals, discusses both manual and automated
procedures for setting up basic replication.
Chapter 3, The Binary Log, explains the critical file that ties together replication and
helps in disaster recovery, troubleshooting, and other administrative tasks.
Chapter 4, Replication for High Availability, shows a number of ways to recover from
server failure, including the use of automated scripts.
Chapter 5, MySQL Replication for Scale-Out, shows a number of techniques and top-
ologies for improving response time and handling large data sets.
Chapter 6, Advanced Replication, addresses a number of topics, such as secure data
transfer and row-based replication.
xviii | Preface
Part III, High Availability Environments
Chapter 14, Cloud Computing Solutions, introduces the most popular cloud computing
service, the Amazon.com AWS, and offers techniques for using MySQL in such vir-
tualized environments.
Chapter 15, MySQL Cluster, shows how to use this tool to achieve high availability.
The Appendix, Replication Tips and Tricks, offers a grab bag of procedures that are
useful in certain situations.
Preface | xix
require permission. Answering a question by citing this book and quoting example
code does not require permission. Incorporating a significant amount of example code
from this book into your product’s documentation does require permission.
We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An attribution usually includes the title,
author, publisher, and ISBN. For example: “MySQL High Availability, by Charles Bell,
Mats Kindahl, and Lars Thalmann. Copyright 2010 Charles Bell, Mats Kindahl, and
Lars Thalmann, 9780596807306.”
If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use or the permission given above,
feel free to contact us at permissions@oreilly.com.
xx | Preface
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank our technical reviewers, Mark Callaghan, Luis Soares,
and Morgan Tocker. Your attention to detail and insightful suggestions were invalua-
ble. We could not have delivered a quality book without your help.
We also want to thank our extremely talented colleagues on the MySQL replication
team, including Alfranio Correia, Andrei Elkin, Zhen-Xing He, Serge Kozlov, Sven
Sandberg, Luis Soares, Rafal Somla, Li-Bing Song, Ingo Strüwing, and Dao-Gang Qu
for their tireless dedication to making MySQL replication the robust and powerful
feature set it is today. We especially would like to thank our MySQL customer support
professionals, who help us bridge the gap between our customers’ needs and our own
desires to improve the product. We would also like to thank the many community
members who so selflessly devote time and effort to improve MySQL for everyone.
Finally, and most importantly, we would like to thank our editor, Andy Oram, who
helped us shape this work, for putting up with our sometimes cerebral and sometimes
over-the-top enthusiasm for all things MySQL.
Charles would like to thank his loving wife, Annette, for her patience and understand-
ing when he was spending time away from family priorities to work on this book. You
are the love of his life and his inspiration. Charles would also like to thank his many
colleagues on the MySQL team at Oracle who contribute their wisdom freely to every-
one on a daily basis. Finally, Charles would like to thank all of his brothers and sisters
in Christ who both challenge and support him daily.
Preface | xxi
Mats would like to thank his wife, Lill, and two sons, Jon and Hannes, for their un-
conditional love and understanding in difficult times. You are the love of his life and
he cannot imagine a life without you. Mats would also like to thank his MySQL
colleagues inside and outside Sun/Oracle for all the interesting, amusing, and inspiring
times together: you are truly some of the sharpest minds in the trade.
Lars would like to thank all his colleagues, current and past, who have made MySQL
such an interesting place to work. In fact, it is not even a place. The distributed nature
of the MySQL development team and the open-mindedness of its many dedicated de-
velopers are truly extraordinary. The MySQL community has a special spirit that makes
working with MySQL an honorable task. What we have created together is remarkable.
It is amazing that we started with such a small group of people and managed to build
a product that services so many of the Fortune 500 companies today.
xxii | Preface
PART I
Replication
Your first task in providing a robust MySQL environment is to set up replication. What
you learn along the way will help you later when you configure and manage other
aspects of high availability.
Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
Dumouriez replied, asking for an audience, and requested his
successor to be sought for. It was clear that the anti-revolutionist
party felt strong.
Indeed, they were reckoning on the following forces:
The Constitutional Guards, six thousand strong, disbanded, but
ready to fly to arms at the first call; seven or eight thousand Knights
of the Order of St. Louis, whose red ribbon was the rallying token;
three battalions of Switzers, sixteen hundred men, picked soldiers,
unshaken as the old Helvetic rocks.
Better than all, Lafayette had written: "Persist, sire; fortified with the
authority the National Assembly has delegated to you, you will find
all good citizens on your side!"
The plan was to gather all the forces at a given signal, seize the
cannon of each section of Paris, shut up the Jacobin's Club-house
and the Assembly, add all the Royalists in the National Guard, say, a
contingent of fifteen thousand men, and wait for Lafayette, who
might march up in three days.
The misfortune was that the queen would not hear of Lafayette.
Lafayette was merely the Revolution moderated, and might prolong
it and lead to a republic like that he had brought round in America;
while the Jacobins' outrageous rule would sicken the people and
could not endure.
Oh, had Charny been at hand! But it was not even known where he
was; and were it known, it would be too low an abasement for the
woman, if not the queen, to have recourse to him.
The night passed tumultuously at the palace, where they had the
means of defense and attack, but not a hand strong enough to
grasp and hurl them.
Dumouriez and his colleagues came to resign. They affirmed they
were willing to die for the king, but to do this for the clergy would
only precipitate the downfall of the monarchy.
"Sire," pleaded Dumouriez, "your conscience is misled; you are
beguiled into civil war. Without strength, you must succumb, and
history, while sorrowing for you, will blame you for causing the woes
of France."
"Heaven be my witness that I wished but her happiness!"
"I do not doubt that; but one must account to the King of kings not
only for purity of intentions, but the enlightened use of intentions.
You suppose you are saving religion, but you will destroy it; your
priests will be massacred; your broken crown will roll in your blood,
the queen's, your children's, perhaps—oh, my king, my king!"
Choking, he applied his lips to the royal hand. With perfect serenity,
and a majesty of which he might not be believed capable, Louis
replied.
"You are right, general. I expect death, and forgive my murderers
beforehand. You have well served me; I esteem you, and am
affected by your sympathy. Farewell, sir!"
With Dumouriez going, royalty had parted with its last stay. The king
threw off the mask, and stood with uncovered face before the
people.
Let us see what the people were doing on their side.
CHAPTER V.
THE UNINVITED VISITORS.
All day long a man in general's uniform was riding about the St.
Antoine suburb, on a large Flanders horse, shaking hands right and
left, kissing the girls and treating the men to drink. This was one of
Lafayette's half dozen heirs, the small-change of the commander of
the National Guard—Battalion Commander Santerre.
Beside him rode, on a fiery charger, like an aid next his general, a
stout man who might by his dress be taken to be a well-to-do
farmer. A scar tracked his brow, and he had as gloomy an eye and
scowling a face as the battalion commander had an open
countenance and frank smile.
"Get ready, my good friends; watch over the nation, against which
traitors are plotting. But we are on guard," Santerre kept saying.
"What are we to do, friend Santerre?" asked the working-men. "You
know that we are all your own. Where are the traitors? Lead us at
them!"
"Wait; the proper time has not come."
"When will it strike?"
Santerre did not know a word about it; so he replied at a hazard,
"Keep ready; we'll let you know."
But the man who rode by his knee, bending down over the horse's
neck, would make signs to some men, and whisper:
"June twenty."
Whereupon these men would call groups of twenty or so around
each, and repeat the date to them, so that it would be circulated.
Nobody knew what would be done on the twentieth of June, but all
felt sure that something would happen on that day.
By whom was this mob moved, stirred, and excited? By a man of
powerful build, leonine mane, and roaring voice, whom Santerre was
to find waiting in his brewery office—Danton.
None better than this terrible wizard of the Revolution could evoke
terror from the slums and hurl it into the old palace of Catherine di
Medicis. Danton was the gong of riots; the blow he received he
imparted vibratingly to all the multitude around him. Through Hebert
he was linked to the populace, as by the Duke of Orleans he was
affixed to the throne.
Whence came his power, doomed to be so fatal to royalty? To the
queen, the spiteful Austrian who had not liked Lafayette to be mayor
of Paris, but preferred Petion, the Republican, who had no sooner
brought back the fugitive king to the Tuileries than he set to watch
him closely.
Petion had made his two friends, Manuel and Danton, the Public
Prosecutor and the Vice, respectively.
On the twentieth of June, under the pretext of presenting a petition
to the king and raising a liberty pole, the palace was to be stormed.
The adepts alone knew that France was to be saved from the
Lafayettes and the Moderates, and a warning to be given to the
incorrigible monarch that there are some political tempests in which
a vessel may be swamped with all hands aboard; that is, a king be
overwhelmed with throne and family as in the oceanic abysses.
Billet knew more than Santerre when he accompanied him on his
tour, after presenting himself as from the committee.
Danton called on the brewer to arrange for the meeting of the
popular leaders that night at Charenton for the march on the
morrow, presumably to the House, but really to the Tuileries.
The watchword was, "Have done with the palace!" but the way
remained vague.
On the evening of the nineteenth, the queen saw a woman clad in
scarlet, with a belt full of pistols, gallop, bold and terrible, along the
main streets. It was Theroigne Mericourt, the beauty of Liege, who
had gone back to her native country to help its rebellion; but the
Austrians had caught her and kept her imprisoned for eighteen
months.
She returned mysteriously to be at the bloody feast of the coming
day. The courtesan of opulence, she was now the beloved of the
people; from her noble lovers had come the funds for her costly
weapons, which were not all for show. Hence the mob hailed her
with cheers.
From the Tuileries garret, where the queen had climbed on hearing
the uproar, she saw tables set out in the public squares and wine
broached; patriotic songs were sung and at every toast fists were
shaken at the palace.
Who were the guests? The Federals of Marseilles, led by Barbaroux,
who brought with them the song worth an army—"the Marseillaise
Hymn of Liberty."
Day breaks early in June. At five o'clock the battalions were
marshaled, for the insurrection was regularized by this time and had
a military aspect. The mob had chiefs, submitted to discipline, and
fell into assigned places under flags.
Santerre was on horseback, with his staff of men from the working
district. Billet did not leave him, for the occult power of the Invisibles
charged him to watch over him.
Of the three corps into which the forces were divided, Santerre
commanded the first, St. Huruge the second, and Theroigne the last.
About eleven, on an order brought by an unknown man, the
immense mass started out. It numbered some twenty thousand
when it left the Bastile Square.
It had a wild, odd, and horrible look.
Santerre's battalion was the most regular, having many in uniform,
and muskets and bayonets among the weapons. But the other two
were armed mobs, haggard, thin, and in rags from three years of
revolutions and four of famine.
Neither had uniforms nor muskets, but tattered coats and smocks;
quaint arms snatched up in the first impulse of self-defense and
anger: pikes, cooking-spits, jagged spears, hiltless swords, knives
lashed to long poles, broad-axes, stone-masons' hammers and
curriers' knives.
For standards, a gallows with a dangling doll, meant for the queen;
a bull's head, with an obscene card stuck on the horns; a calf's heart
on a spit, with the motto: "An Aristocrat's;" while flags showed the
legends: "Sanction the decrees, or death!"—"Recall the patriotic
ministers!"—"Tremble, tyrant; your hour has come!"
At every crossing and from each by-way the army was swollen.
The mass was silent, save now and then when a cheer burst from
the midst, or a snatch of the "It shall go on" was sung, or cries went
up of "The nation forever!"—"Long live the Breechless!"—"Down
with Old Veto and Madame Veto!"
They came out for sport—to frighten the king and queen, and did
not mean murdering. They demanded to march past the Assembly
through the Hall, and for three hours they defiled under the eyes of
their representatives.
It was three o'clock. The mob had obtained half their programme,
the placing of their petition before the Assembly. The next thing was
to call on the king for his sanction to the decree.
As the Assembly had received them, how could the king refuse?
Surely he was not a greater potentate than the Speaker of the
House, whose chair was like his and in the grander place?
In fact, the king assented to receiving their deputation of twenty.
As the common people had never entered the palace, they merely
expected their representatives would be received while they
marched by under the windows. They would show the king their
banners with the odd devices and the gory standards.
All the palace garden gates were closed; in the yards and gardens
were soldiers with four field-pieces. Seeing this apparently ample
protection, the royal family might be tranquil.
Still without any evil idea, the crowd asked for the gates to be
opened which allowed entrance on the Feuillants Terrace.
Three municipal officers went in and got leave from the king for
passage to be given over the terrace and out by the stable doors.
Everybody wanted to go in as soon as the gates were open, and the
throng spread over the lawn; it was forgotten to open the outlet by
the stables, and the crush began to be severe. They streamed
before the National Guards in a row along the palace wall to the
Carrousel gates, by which they might have resumed the homeward
route. They were locked and guarded.
Sweltering, crushed, and turned about, the mob began to be
irritated. Before its growls the gates were opened and the men
spread over the capacious square.
There they remembered what the main affair was—to petition the
king to revoke his veto. Instead of continuing the road, they waited
in the square for an hour, when they grew impatient.
They might have gone away, but that was not the aim of the
agitators, who went from group to group, saying:
"Stay; what do you want to sneak away for? The king is going to
give his sanction; if we were to go home without that, we should
have all our work to do over again."
The level-headed thought this sensible advice, but at the same time
that the sanction was a long time coming. They were getting hungry,
and that was the general cry.
Bread was not so dear as it had been, but there was no work going
on, and however cheap bread may be, it is not made for nothing.
Everybody had risen at five, workmen and their wives, with their
children, and come to the palace with the idea that they had but to
get the royal sanction to have hard times end. But the king did not
seem to be at all eager to give his sanction.
It was hot, and thirst began to be felt. Hunger, thirst, and heat drive
dogs mad; yet the poor people waited and kept patient. But those
next to the railings set to shaking them. A municipal officer made a
speech to them:
"Citizens, this is the king's residence, and to enter with arms is to
violate it. The king is quite ready to receive your petition, but only
from twenty deputies bearing it."
What! had not their deputation, sent in an hour ago, been attended
to yet?
Suddenly loud shouts were heard on the streets. It was Santerre,
Billet, and Huruge on their horses, and Theroigne riding on her
cannon.
"What are you fellows hanging round this gate for?" queried Huruge.
"Why do you not go right in?"
"Just so; why haven't we?" said the thousands.
"Can't you see it is fast?" cried several voices.
Theroigne jumped off her cannon, saying:
"The barker is full to the muzzle; let's blow the old gate open."
"Wait! wait!" shouted two municipal officers; "no roughness. It shall
be opened to you."
Indeed, by pressing on the spring-catch they released the two gates,
which drew aside, and the mass rushed through.
Along with them came the cannon, which crossed the yard with
them, mounted the steps, and reached the head of the stairs in their
company. Here stood the city officials in their scarfs of office.
"What do you intend doing with a piece of artillery?" they
challenged. "Great guns in the royal apartments! Do you believe
anything is to be gained by such violence?"
"Quite right," said the ringleaders, astonished themselves to see the
gun there; and they turned it round to get it down-stairs. The hub
caught on the jamb, and the muzzle gaped on the crowd.
"Why, hang them all, they have got cannon all over the palace!"
commented the new-comers, not knowing their own artillery.
Police-Magistrate Mouchet, a deformed dwarf, ordered the men to
chop the wheel clear, and they managed to hack the door-jamb
away so as to free the piece, which was taken down to the yard.
This led to the report that the mob were smashing all the doors in.
Some two hundred noblemen ran to the palace, not with the hope of
defending it, but to die with the king, whose life they deemed
menaced. Prominent among these was a man in black, who had
previously offered his breast to the assassin's bullet, and who always
leaped like a last Life-Guard between danger and the king, from
whom he had tried to conjure it. This was Gilbert.
After being excited by the frightful tumult, the king and queen
became used to it.
It was half past three, and it was hoped that the day would close
with no more harm done.
Suddenly, the sound of the ax blows was heard above the noise of
clamor, like the howling of a coming tempest. A man darted into the
king's sleeping-room and called out:
"Sire, let me stand by you, and I will answer for all."
It was Dr. Gilbert, seen at almost periodical intervals, and in all the
"striking situations" of the tragedy in play.
"Oh, doctor, is this you? What is it?" King and queen spoke together.
"The palace is surrounded, and the people are making this uproar in
wanting to see you."
"We shall not leave you, sire," said the queen and Princess Elizabeth.
"Will the king kindly allow me for an hour such power as a captain
has over his ship?" asked Gilbert.
"I grant it," replied the monarch. "Madame, hearken to Doctor
Gilbert's advice, and obey his orders, if needs must." He turned to
the doctor: "Will you answer to me for the queen and the dauphin?"
"I do, or I shall die with them; it is all a pilot can say in the
tempest!"
The queen wished to make a last effort, but Gilbert barred the way
with his arms.
"Madame," he said, "it is you and not the king who run the real
danger. Rightly or wrongly, they accuse you of the king's resistance,
so that your presence will expose him without defending him. Be the
lightning-conductor—divert the bolt, if you can!"
"Then let it fall on me, but save my children!"
"I have answered for you and them to the king. Follow me."
He said the same to Princess Lamballe, who had returned lately from
London, and the other ladies, and guided them to the Council Hall,
where he placed them in a window recess, with the heavy table
before them.
The queen stood behind her children—Innocence protecting
Unpopularity, although she wished it to be the other way.
"All is well thus," said Gilbert, in the tone of a general commanding a
decisive operation; "do not stir."
There came a pounding at the door, which he threw open with both
folds, and as he knew there were many women in the crowd, he
cried:
"Walk in, citizenesses; the queen and her children await you."
The crowd burst in as through a broken dam.
"Where is the Austrian? where is the Lady Veto?" demanded five
hundred voices.
It was the critical moment.
"Be calm," said Gilbert to the queen, knowing that all was in
Heaven's hand, and man was as nothing. "I need not recommend
you to be kind."
Preceding the others was a woman with her hair down, who
brandished a saber; she was flushed with rage—perhaps from
hunger.
"Where is the Austrian cat? She shall die by no hand but mine!" she
screamed.
"This is she," said Gilbert, taking her by the hand and leading her up
to the queen.
"Have I ever done you a personal wrong?" demanded the latter, in
her sweetest voice.
"I can not say you have," faltered the woman of the people, amazed
at the majesty and gentleness of Marie Antoinette.
"Then why should you wish to kill me?"
"Folks told me that you were the ruin of the nation," faltered the
abashed young woman, lowering the point of her saber to the floor.
"Then you were told wrong. I married your King of France, and am
mother of the prince whom you see here. I am a French woman,
one who will nevermore see the land where she was born; in France
alone I must dwell, happy or unhappy. Alas! I was happy when you
loved me." And she sighed.
The girl dropped the sword, and wept.
"Beg your pardon, madame, but I did not know what you were like.
I see you are a good sort, after all."
"Keep on like that," prompted Gilbert, "and not only will you be
saved, but all these people will be at your feet in an hour."
Intrusting her to some National Guardsmen and the War Minister,
who came in with the mob, he ran to the king.
Louis had gone through a similar experience. On hastening toward
the crowd, as he opened the Bull's-eye Room, the door panels were
dashed in, and pikes, bayonets, and axes showed their points and
edges.
"Open the doors!" cried the king.
Servants heaped up chairs before him, and four grenadiers stood in
front, but he made them put up their swords, as the flash of steel
might seem a provocation.
A ragged fellow, with a knife-blade set in a pole, darted at the king,
yelling:
"Take that for your veto!"
One grenadier, who had not yet sheathed his sword, struck down the
stick with the blade. But it was the king who, entirely recovering self-
command, put the soldier aside with his hand, and said:
"Let me stand forward, sir. What have I to fear amid my people?"
Taking a forward step, Louis XVI., with a majesty not expected in
him, and a courage strange heretofore in him, offered his breast to
the weapons of all sorts directed against him.
"Hold your noise!" thundered a stentorian voice in the midst of the
awful din. "I want a word in here."
A cannon might have vainly sought to be heard in this clamor, but at
this voice all the vociferation ceased. This was the butcher Legendre.
He went up almost to touching the king, while they formed a ring
round the two.
Just then, on the outer edge of the circle, a man made his
appearance, and behind the dread double of Danton, the king
recognized Gilbert, pale and serene of face. The questioning glance
implying: "What have you done with the queen?" was answered by
the doctor's smile to the effect that she was in safety. He thanked
him with a nod.
"Sirrah," began Legendre.
This expression, which seemed to indicate that the sovereign was
already deposed, made the latter turn as if a snake had stung him.
"Yes, sir, I am talking to you, Veto," went on Legendre. "Just listen
to us, for it is our turn to have you hear us. You are a double-dealer,
who have always cheated us, and would try it again, so look out for
yourself. The measure is full, and the people are tired of being your
plaything and victim."
"Well, I am listening to you, sir," rejoined the king.
"And a good thing, too. Do you know what we have come here for?
To ask the sanction of the decrees and the recall of the ministers.
Here is our petition—see!"
Taking a paper from his pocket, he unfolded it, and read the same
menacing lines which had been heard in the House. With his eyes
fixed on the speaker, the king listened, and said, when it was ended,
without the least apparent emotion:
"Sir, I shall do what the laws and the Constitution order me to do!"
"Gammon!" broke in a voice; "the Constitution is your high horse,
which lets you block the road of the whole country, to keep France
in-doors, for fear of being trampled on, and wait till the Austrians
come up to cut her throat."
The king turned toward this fresh voice, comprehending that it was
a worse danger. Gilbert also made a movement and laid his hand on
the speaker's shoulder.
"I have seen you somewhere before, friend," remarked the king.
"Who are you?"
He looked with more curiosity than fear, though this man wore a
front of terrible resolution.
"Ay, you have seen me before, sire. Three times: once, when you
were brought back from Versailles; next at Varennes; and the last
time, here. Sire, bear my name in mind, for it is of ill omen. It is
Billet."
At this the shouting was renewed, and a man with a lance tried to
stab the king; but Billet seized the weapon, tore it from the wielder's
grip, and snapped it across his knee.
"No foul play," he said; "only one kind of steel has the right to touch
this man: the ax of the executioner! I hear that a King of England
had his head cut off by the people whom he betrayed—you ought to
know his name, Louis. Don't you forget it."
"'Sh, Billet!" muttered Gilbert.
"Oh, you may say what you like," returned Billet, shaking his head;
"this man is going to be tried and doomed as a traitor."
"Yes, a traitor!" yelled a hundred voices; "traitor, traitor!"
Gilbert threw himself in between.
"Fear nothing, sire, and try by some material token to give
satisfaction to these mad men."
Taking the physician's hand, the king laid it on his heart.
"You see that I fear nothing," he said; "I received the sacraments
this morning. Let them do what they like with me. As for the
material sign which you suggest I should display—are you satisfied?"
Taking the red cap from a by-stander, he set it on his own head. The
multitude burst into applause.
"Hurrah for the king!" shouted all the voices.
A fellow broke through the crowd and held up a bottle.
"If fat old Veto loves the people as much as he says, prove it by
drinking our health."
"Do not drink," whispered a voice. "It may be poisoned."
"Drink, sire, I answer for the honesty," said Gilbert.
The king took the bottle, and saying, "To the health of the people,"
he drank. Fresh cheers for the king resounded.
"Sire, you have nothing to fear," said Gilbert; "allow me to return to
the queen."
"Go," said the other, gripping his hand.
More tranquil, the doctor hastened to the Council Hall, where he
breathed still easier after one glance. The queen stood in the same
spot; the little prince, like his father, was wearing the red cap.
In the next room was a great hubbub; it was the reception of
Santerre, who rolled into the hall.
"Where is this Austrian wench?" demanded he.
Gilbert cut slanting across the hall to intercept him.
"Halloo, Doctor Gilbert!" said he, quite joyfully.
"Who has not forgotten that you were one of those who opened the
Bastile doors to me," replied the doctor. "Let me present you to the
queen."
"Present me to the queen?" growled the brewer.
"You will not refuse, will you?"
"Faith, I'll not. I was going to introduce myself; but as you are in the
way—"
"Monsieur Santerre needs no introduction," interposed the queen. "I
know how at the famine time he fed at his sole expense half the St.
Antoine suburb."
Santerre stopped, astonished; then, his glance happening to fall,
embarrassed, on the dauphin, whose perspiration was running down
his cheeks, he roared:
"Here, take that sweater off the boy—don't you see he is
smothering?"
The queen thanked him with a look. He leaned on the table, and
bending toward her, he said in an under-tone:
"You have a lot of clumsy friends, madame. I could tell you of some
who would serve you better."
An hour afterward all the mob had flowed away, and the king,
accompanied by his sister, entered the room where the queen and
his children awaited him.
She ran to him and threw herself at his feet, while the children
seized his hands, and all acted as though they had been saved from
a shipwreck. It was only then that the king noticed that he was
wearing the red cap.
"Faugh!" he said; "I had forgotten!"
Snatching it off with both hands, he flung it far from him with
disgust.
The evacuation of the palace was as dull and dumb as the taking
had been gleeful and noisy. Astonished at the little result, the mob
said:
"We have not made anything; we shall have to come again."
In fact, it was too much for a threat, and not enough for an attempt
on the king's life.
Louis had been judged on his reputation, and recalling his flight to
Varennes, disguised as a serving-man, they had thought that he
would hide under a table at the first noise, and might be done to
death in the scuffle, like Polonius behind the arras.
Things had happened otherwise; never had the monarch been
calmer, never so grand. In the height of the threats and the insults
he had not ceased to say: "Behold your king!"
The Royalists were delighted, for, to tell the truth, they had carried
the day.
CHAPTER VI.
"THE COUNTRY IS IN DANGER!"
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