1Of all the remarkably interesting events connected with the French Revolution, perhaps the one most worthy of notice is the flight of Louis XVI, and his capture at Varennes.

2At the time when I determined to take the trip of which I will give you some details, and which put me in possession of the memoirs I am about to publish—that is to say, about the 19th of June, 1856—I had read almost all that had been written concerning the above-mentioned flight.

3I wish to start from Châlons, because from the fact of the King being recognized there, came the train of events which ended at Varennes on the evening of his arrest.

4The capture of Louis at Varennes was the culminating point of royalty. For although it took seven hundred and four years to arrive at Varennes, it took but nineteen months to descend from Varennes to the Place de la Revolution.

5It is not because the heads of three persons, who were in the carriage that took royalty to the precipice, fell on the scaffold, that we mark out the event as the greatest in the French Revolution, and, indeed, in the whole history of France. No! It is because the arrest of the King in the little town of Varennes, unknown on the 22nd of June, and on the morrow fatally immortalized, was the source of the political convulsions which have since occurred.

6My resolution to go to Varennes once taken, I started from Paris on the 19th of June, 1856, and on the 20th of the same month, at one o’clock next morning, I arrived at Châlons.

7I was, as you know, in search of details actually seen by eye-witnesses. I soon discovered two old men who could give me the necessary information. One was a Monsieur Ricaise, at Châlons—one of the postilions who drove the King; the other, Monsieur Mathieu, notary, at St. Menehould, who had seen the horses changed at the moment that Drouet recognized the King.

8But it was especially necessary to discover some one at Varennes who remembered some incidents connected with the affair; because at Varennes occurred the most dramatic part of the whole catastrophe.

9I first asked a keeper of the records whether he knew any one who had seen the King, and assisted to arrest him?

10He mentioned Colonel Réné Besson.

11I asked him to give me his address.

12“I will do better,” said he,—“I will take you to him.”

13At the very moment that we entered by the Rue de l’Horloge, that place where Louis XVI was arrested, which, singularly enough, has the shape of the axe of the guillotine, my guide put his hand on my shoulder.

14“Eh!” said he; “here is the very man we want.”

15And he showed me, at the corner of the Place Latry and the Rue de la Basse, a fine old man, warming himself in the rays of the sun, and sitting in a large arm-chair before his door.

16It was Colonel Réné Besson.

17We drew near to him.

18Imagining that we had some business with him, he arranged himself more comfortably in his chair, and waited an explanation.

19“Ah, ah! is it you, Monsieur Leduc?” said he.

20“Yes, Colonel, it is I; and in good company, too, as you may see,” my companion replied.

21“Colonel, I call on you in right of being the son of one of your old companions in arms; for you took a part in the Egyptian campaign, under General Desaix?”

22“Yes, sir, I did,” answered he.

23“The fact of being the son of an old companion in arms,” I continued, “and of bearing the name of the conqueror of Murad Bey, induced me to take the liberty of calling on you, and asking for information on certain points. To commence. Were you at the battle of Valmy?”

24“I was with my regiment six days before, on the 2nd of September; and I just missed leaving my bones at La Force, in trying to rescue a woman—a princess, I should say.”

25“The Princess Lamballe?”

26“Exactly so.”

27“At this period, I was living then, in the Rue Saint Honoré with the carpenter, Duplay.”

28“You have seen Robespierre, then?”

29“Just as I have you. It was I who made the table on which he wrote the greater part of his speeches.”

30“And Danton?”

31“Danton? It was he who enrolled me on the 2nd of September. But I knew Danton, as you say, and Camilles Desmoulins, Saint Just, and afterwards, later on, the Duke D’Enghien, and even Marshal Ney.”

32“You have seen the Duke D’Enghien?”

33“I was secretary to the Minister of War who sentenced him.”

34“And also Marshal Ney?”

35“It was he who made me lieutenant-colonel in the retreat from Moscow.”

36“I will never leave you, Colonel; I will be your secretary, and we will write your memoirs.”

37“You are too late,” said he, laughing; “my memoirs are already three-fourths finished.”

38“What? Do you mean to say you have written——”

39“Oh, simply to amuse myself: and there is my secretary. Hush!”

40At this moment the door opened, and a beautiful girl of seventeen or eighteen came towards us.

41“Is that your secretary?” I asked.

42“Yes; Marie, my dear little granddaughter. Bow to Monsieur. You ought to, after the sleepless nights you have passed through thinking of him.”

43“I?” said the girl, blushing. “I do not know the gentleman!”

44“But you know ‘Monte Christo’ and the ‘Three Musketeers?’”

45“Monsieur Dumas! Is it possible?” cried she.

46“Yes, Monsieur Dumas. You see that you know him.”

47“Oh, sir, I am so glad to see you!”

48“You will be my accomplice, then, against the Colonel?”

49“Against my grandfather?”

50“Yes. He has written some memoirs.”

51“I know that. It is I who write from his dictation.”

52“Ah! they are worth reading.”

53“Oh, grandpapa, Monsieur Dumas says that your memoirs are worth reading!”

54“If he wishes to read them, I shall not hinder him,” said the Colonel.

55“Will you really permit me, sir?”

56“If I refused you, I should be attaching too much importance to them.”

57“Colonel, I am like the gamin of Paris of Monsieur Vanderburch—I should like to embrace you.”

58“Embrace my secretary; that will give more pleasure to both of you.”

59I looked at Marie and she blushed as red as a cherry.

60“Mademoiselle!” I said, imploringly.

61She held up her cheeks to me.

62I took her hands in mine, and looked at her intently.

63“Has Mademoiselle,” I asked the Colonel, “a page in your memoirs?”

64“The last—a white page. But Marie has something to tell me. What is it, my child?”

65“That supper is ready, grandpapa.”

66“You hear. Have you an appetite?”

67“Unfortunately, I have just dined.”

68“I should have liked to clink glasses with you.”

69“Will you allow me to breakfast with you to-morrow, instead? You see, I am taking a liberty with you already. Mademoiselle can give me the memoirs this evening. I will read them to-night, and return them to-morrow.”

70“What! read them to-night? How many pages are there, Marie?”

71“Seven or eight hundred, grandfather,” replied the young girl.

72“Seven or eight hundred pages! If you will permit me, I will copy them.”

73Well, the Colonel allowed me to copy from his manuscript all that had reference to the arrest of the King at Varennes; and when he died, left me sole possessor of his memoirs.

74Colonel Réné Besson has been gathered to his fathers three months since, at the good old age of eighty-seven. He died, on a beautiful sunlit afternoon, when the mellow tints of autumn were melting into the snowy wreaths of winter. Peace be with him.

75Eight days after his death, I received the manuscript, with a letter from Marie, who has become one of the most charming girls I ever met with.

76The manuscript I now publish, is that of Colonel Réné de Besson; and I give it the title that was chosen by him.

77(Signed) Alexandre Dumas.