1There was therefore, no escort awaiting the King at Pont-de-Somme-Vesles when he arrived there.

2But if there was no escort, there were likewise no peasants. The road was clear; the King therefore changed horses without an obstacle, and started for St. Menehould.

3At St. Menehould, M. Dandoins awaited the King’s arrival with as much impatience as M. de Choiseul and M. Goguelot had; and about mid-day he set out with his lieutenant on the road to Châlons, in the hopes of seeing some sign of his arrival.

4This road is one long descent from St. Menehould to Châlons. They cast their eyes for a length of two leagues on a straight line, traced, as it were, by a pencil, between two rows of trees, with uncultivated green patches of country around them.

5Nothing was visible on the road.

6M. Dandoins and his lieutenant returned to St. Menehould.

7Two hours afterward they again strolled along that same road.

8To get to the barracks situated at the bottom of the Faubourg Fleurion, it was necessary to pass right through the town.

9They returned, as on the former occasion, without having seen anything.

10These in-comings and out-goings excited the attention of a population already alarmed. They perceived that the two officers had the appearance of being restless and uneasy.

11To the queries put them on the subject, they replied that they were awaiting a treasure which apparently was delayed, and that this delay gave rise to uneasiness.

12About seven o’clock in the evening, a courier, dressed in a chamois leather vest, arrived, drew up at the post-house, and commanded horses for two carriages.

13The postmaster was Jean Baptiste Drouet.

14M. de Dandoins approached M. de Valory.

15“Monsieur,” said he, in a whisper, “you are preceding the King’s carriage, are you not?”

16“Yes, monsieur,” replied the courier; “and let me add, that I am astonished to see you and your men in policemen’s hats.”

17“We did not know the exact hour of the King’s arrival. Our presence annoys the people; demonstrations of the most menacing character with regard to us have been made, and they have tried to entice away my men.”

18“Silence,” said M. de Valory; “they hear what we are saying. Rejoin your men, sir, and try to keep them to their duty.”

19MM. de Valory and de Dandoins then separated.

20At the same moment the crackings of a whip were heard, and the two carriages crossed the Place de l’Hotel de Ville.

21They drew up in front of the post-house.

22One can easily recognise the house, then built about three years, and which bears upon its face the date 1788.

23Scarcely had the carriage stopped, when crowds of people surrounded them.

24One of the lookers-on asked M. Malden, who was descending from the box, “Who are the travellers who journey in this style?”

25“Madame the Baronne de Korff,” replied de Malden.

26“What! another of the exiles who are sucking at the vitals of France?” murmured the spectator, discontentedly.

27“No; this lady is a Russian, and, consequently, a stranger.”

28During this, M. de Dandoins, his policeman’s hat in his hand, approached the carriage door, before which he stood, respectfully.

29“Sir officer,” said the King, “how is it that I found no one at Pont-de-Somme-Vesles?”

30“I was asking myself, sire, how it was that you arrived without escort.”

31The sight of a commander of dragoons talking with the deepest respect to a sort of valet-de-chambre, seated in the front seat of the carriage, redoubled the astonishment of the people, and began to change that astonishment rapidly into suspicion.

32Still, the King took no precaution to hide himself.

33At this moment, M. Drouet came out from the door of his house, and seeing the man who was talking to the commander of the dragoons, he cried, “Just heavens—the King!”

34He had much the same expression of face as he had at the federation, and his general appearance was such that he was not easily disguised.

35A municipal officer was there; his name was Farcy.

36Drouet touched him on the elbow.

37“Do you recognize that man?” said he, pointing to the King.

38“Yes,” replied the other. “It is the King.”

39“Call together the municipal council.”

40Then, running to the door of the house, “Guillaume, Guillaume!” he cried.

41Guillaume, who was within, ran out to him. Drouet pointed out to him the King.

42“That is he whom we have been expecting,” said he.

43Meanwhile M. Farcy had run to the municipality, and there made his report.

44Drouet followed after him, and likewise entered the municipal council chamber.

45Scarcely had he turned the corner of the street, than the carriages, which had been relayed in the twinkling of an eye, started off at a sharp trot.

46A somewhat strange event accompanied their departure.

47Behind the carriage a sous-officer of dragoons, whom we have seen speaking to the King, notwithstanding his inferior rank, pushed on at a gallop, firing, as he did so, a pistol in the air.

48Without doubt, it was a signal; but the citizens took it as a sign for hostilities, especially as, on hearing it, the dragoons rushed to their horses.

49At this pistol-shot, cries were heard. A man who was threshing in a barn on the left-hand side of the road, a little above the small bridge thrown over the Aisne, left the barn, and tried to stop the sous-officer with his flail.

50The officer drew his sabre, cut the flail in half, and passed on.

51During this time the municipal council had decided that some one should run after the royal carriages, and stop them.

52“But who will do it?” asked the Mayor.

53“I will,” replied M. Drouet.

54Other young men offered to accompany him; but he had not at the post-house more than one horse of his own, with the exception of a little pony, which was for his friend Guillaume, on which he could count as well as he could on himself. Two other citizens seized horses, and determining not to leave them, set out with them, or, at least, behind them.

55They started, amid shouts of encouragement from the whole town.

56Two hours after, the two citizens returned on their paltry hacks. They had not been able to keep up the pace.

57But M. Jean Baptiste Drouet, bearer of A Warrant from the Municipality to arrest the King, and Citizen Guillaume, continued the chase.

58I underline the warrant given by the municipality for the arrest of the King, because I have never seen mention made of it by any historian, and because, having seen the warrant in M. Drouet’s hand, I can speak positively with regard to the existence of the paper.

59I wish you to understand why I lay so much stress on the fact of the existence of a warrant. It is because M. Jean Baptiste Drouet, sent by the municipality of St. Menehould to arrest the King and the royal family, is not the isolated fanatic, obeying a regicidal impulse, as the Royalist journals and histories would have it, but a citizen of unblemished character, who fulfilled but his duty in obeying the commands of the magistrates of his country.

60But to return to our tale.

61The royal carriage started, and MM. Drouet and Guillaume in pursuit. M. Dandoins ordered his dragoons to mount, and follow.

62But the order was more easily given than executed.

63The pistol-shot fired by the sous-officer had found an echo in the hearts—or, rather, the imaginations of—of those who heard it. The National Guard armed themselves with their double-barrelled guns. A tumultuous and noisy mob gathered in front of the post-house—that is to say, on the very road that the dragoons would be obliged to follow, in order to come up with the royal carriages.

64M. Dandoins was about to spring into his saddle, when the municipal council commanded him to surrender on the spot at the Hotel de Ville.

65He did so, and was then ordered to give his name and to show his orders.

66“I am named Dandoins,” replied he. “I am a Chevalier of St. Louis, a captain in the 1st Regiment of Dragoon Guards, and there are the orders which I have received.”

67Suiting the action to the word, he placed on the table the following order:—

68“On behalf of the King, I, François Claude Amour de Bouillé, lieutenant-general of the King’s armies, &c. The captain of the 1st Regiment of Dragoons is ordered to march, with forty men of his regiment, on the 19th, from Clermont to St. Menehould, where, on the 20th and 21st, he will await a convoy of money, which will be escorted by a detachment of the 6th Regiment of Hussars from Pont-de-Somme-Vesles, on the Châlons road. The dragoons and their horses will be lodged equally among the hotel keepers. The captain will be reimbursed for all expenses incurred for the provender for the horses, and each dragoon will receive increased pay in place of his rations.

69“De Bouillé.

70“Metz, 14th June, 1791.”

71At this moment the cries of the people mounted to the chamber in which the council were assembled, interrogating M. Dandoins. These cries demanded that the dragoons should be disarmed.

72“You hear, captain?” said the Mayor. “It is needful, in order to tranquillize the people, that your men lay down their arms. Go down, and order them to do so.”

73“I will do so, if you will give me a written authority,” replied M. Dandoins.

74The order was given, and at the command of M. Dandoins the arms of the dragoons, and the accoutrements of the horses, were carried into the Hotel de Ville.

75At the moment M. Dandoins and his lieutenant M. La Cour, reappeared at the door of the Hotel de Ville opening on the Place, the exasperation of the multitude reached a culminating point. Every voice cried, “He is a traitor! He knew all! He has imposed upon the municipality!”

76They conducted the two officers to the town prison.

77Let us now follow the royal carriages, and, as a matter of course, MM. Guillaume and Drouet, their pursuers.

78They had seen them start at full gallop by the Clermont route.

79At eight o’clock a courier arrived from M. de Choiseul.

80This courier was poor Léonard, with his cabriolet.

81He came to tell M. Damas that he had left M. de Choiseul at Pont-de-Somme-Vesles, at half-past four, and that up to that time no courier had arrived.

82Léonard told him also the danger that M. Gorguelot, M. Boudet, and their forty hussars, had incurred.

83M. Damas ran no less risk. The same excitement prevailed everywhere. The sight of his soldiers had provoked murmurs. The hour for retreat approached, and he knew that it would be difficult to keep the men under arms, and the horses saddled, during the whole night, so manifest had the hostile demonstrations become.

84In this interval the cracking of postilions’ whips announced from afar the arrival of the carriages.

85M. Bouillé’s orders were to mount half an hour after the passage of the carriages, and to fall back upon Montmedy, in passing by Varennes.

86M. de Damas rushed to the door, told the King what orders he had received from de Bouillé, and asked him what his orders were.

87“Let the carriages pass without making any remark,” replied the King, “and follow with your dragoons.”

88During this time, incredible as it may appear, a discussion arose between the person charged with the payment of the postilion and the postmaster.

89It is a double post from St. Menehould to Varennes. They did not wish to pay more than single. Ten minutes were lost in this squabble, which estranged the people, who were helping.

90At last, the carriages set off.

91They could have been half a league distant when Drouet arrived.

92Above Islettes, he and Guillaume separated, Guillaume took the short cut by the wood, and thus gained a league; while Drouet followed the road, striving to arrive at Clermont before the King or, if he could not succeed in that, at any rate to catch him up at Varennes.

93On the other hand, thanks to the advantage which the short cut gave him, Guillaume was sure to arrive at Varennes before the King.

94If the King took the Châlons route, Drouet would arrive at Verdun before him.

95Drouet arrived at Châlons, not in time to arrest the King, but in time to prevent the dragoons from following him.

96M. de Damas’s dragoons were on horseback. M. de Damas ordered them to march four deep, with their swords drawn in their hand; but they stood motionless, thrusting their swords into their scabbards.

97At this moment, the municipal officers appeared. They commanded M. de Damas to order his men back to their barracks, as the hour for retreat had passed away.

98During this time, Drouet had changed his horse and started off at a gallop.

99M. de Damas, who had not yet lost all hope of taking off his men, doubted to what end M. Drouet had set off. He called a dragoon, on whose fidelity he knew that he could depend; ordered him to catch up Drouet; stop him from following that road; and, if he resisted to slay him.

100The name of the dragoon was Legache.

101Without making any objection, with the passive obedience of a soldier—perhaps with the warm devotion of a Royalist,—he darted off in pursuit of Drouet.

102Scarcely had he started, when, as you have already been told, the council commanded M. de Damas to withdraw his men into barracks.

103But instead of obeying, like M. Dandoins, M. de Damas drew his sword, struck his spurs into the belly of his horse, dashed into the midst of the crowd, and cried, “All who love me, follow!”

104Three men alone replied to this appeal, and dashed after M. Damas, at a gallop, down the hill of Clermont.

105Drouet was three-quarters of a league in advance of them, but he was pursued by a brave, determined, and well-mounted man.

106Only on leaving Clermont the road splits—one part going to Verdun, the other to Varennes.

107It was not probable that the King would go to Varennes, where he had no relays; if that route had been indicated, it was simply to throw pursuers off the scent.

108Anyhow, Guillaume would be at Varennes; and as he was a native of that place, he would have plenty of influence.

109Drouet galloped, therefore, along the road to Verdun.

110Scarcely had he gone two hundred yards, when he met a postilion, who was leading some horses.

111“Have you seen a large berlin and a cabriolet going past, one with six horses and the other with three?”

112“No, M. Drouet,” replied the postilion.

113The King had therefore gone to Varennes.

114Drouet got on the road to Varennes by cutting across the country, after having leapt a ditch.

115This error, in all probability, saved him.

116The dragoon, Lagache—who knew that the King had gone to Varennes, and not to Verdun, and who saw Drouet take the road to Verdun,—did not think it worth while to pursue him much longer; and when he saw him change his route, it was too late—he was a good half-hour in advance of him.

117In the midst of all this, the King, continuing his route, had left M. Dandoins and his dragoons behind him, at St. Menehould, and M. de Damas and his at Clermont.

118The one and the other ought to be pushing on behind him; and in all probability there was nothing to fear in the localities through which he was now travelling.

119This reflection brought tranquillity to the travellers, who, between Neuvilly and Varennes, find oblivion in sleep.

120We have seen how M. Valory, not finding relays at his post, had thought fit to await the illustrious travellers, in order to consult with them.

121We have seen the Queen descend from the berlin, take the arm of M. Valory, and interrogate M. Préfontaine.

122We have seen M. Préfontaine advance, trembling, to the door of the King’s carriage, answer his interrogatories, return to his house, shut his door, and afterwards open his window.

123We have seen M. Drouet appear like a phantom from the midst of the shadow, forbidding the postilions to proceed, and rushing through the Rue des Réligieuses on to the Place de Latry.

124We have seen the royal berlin stopped, and the occupants forced to descend, and accept the hospitality of M. Sauce, who ushered into a chamber on the first floor of his house the King, the Queen, Madame Elizabeth, Madame de Tourzel, Madame Royale, and the young Dauphin. The windows of this chamber were separated from the windows of mine by a passage, some seven or eight feet in breadth only.

125We have also heard the noise at the top of the Rue Basse Cour, which was made by the arrival of the forty hussars of M. Goguelot and M. de Choiseul, in the midst of whom I recognised M. de Malmy, who had, without doubt, served as their guide.

126We can, therefore—a light being thrown on the past,—resume the thread of our story, without fear of complication or confusion.