1In a moment, the clock struck eleven.

2Every stroke penetrated the hearts of the fugitives, and caused them to tremble.

3They went out, one by one. But how were they able to make a passage to the court, you will ask? This is how it was.

4Madame de Rochereul, whose duties had finished on the 12th, occupied a little chamber which opened into another, which had not been used for six months.

5The empty apartment was M. Villequier’s, first gentleman of the bed-chamber. It was empty because M. Villequier had emigrated.

6That apartment, situate on the ground floor, had a door opening into the Cour des Princes.

7On one side, the chamber of Madame de Rochereul opened both into one belonging to M. Villequier and Madame Royale.

8On the 11th, the moment that Madame Rochereul quitted the château, the King and Queen visited her apartment.

9Under the pretext of enlarging Madame Royale’s suite of rooms, the Queen kept these apartments, and said that the femme-de-chambre of the Dauphin could share those of Madame de Chinnai, maid of honor.

10When in the apartment of M. Villequier, the King demanded the key of M. Renard, inspector of buildings. It was sent to him on the 13th of June.

11Numerous as were the sentinels, they had neglected to place one at the door of that chamber, which had been unoccupied for the space of three months. At eleven o’clock in the evening, the services in the château being finished, the sentinels were accustomed to witness the departure of a great number of people at one time.

12So that once in the apartment of M. Villequier, and as the clock struck eleven, they had every chance of escaping unobserved.

13It was M. de Fersen’s business to smuggle the royal family out of Paris, unobserved.

14He was waiting with a fiacre, disguised as a coachman, at the Wicket de l’Echelle; thence he was to take the fugitives to the barrier at Clichy, where the berlin was in waiting, under the charge of an Englishman, Mr. Crawford.

15The three gardes du corps were to follow, in another fiacre.

16The two femmes-de-chambre, Madame Brunier and Madame de Neuville, went on foot to the Pont Royal, where they found a two-horsed carriage stationed, in which they started for Claye, where they were to await the Queen.

17Madame Elizabeth stepped out first, with Madame Royale; then came Madame de Tourzel, and the Dauphin, accompanied by one of the gardes du corps.

18The two parties were separated one from the other by about twenty paces.

19One of the sentinels crossed the road, and on seeing the first party, stopped them.

20“Oh, aunt!” cried Madame Royale; “we are lost! That man recognises us!”

21Madame Elizabeth made no reply, but continued to advance.

22Madame Royale was deceived. They were not recognised—or, if they were, it was by a friend.

23The sentinel turned his back on them, and allowed them to pass.

24At the expiration of five minutes, Madame de Tourzel, the two princesses, and the Dauphin were in the carriage, which was awaiting them at the corner of the Rue de l’Echelle.

25M. de Fersen was so well disguised, that the princesses did not recognize him. It was he who knew them. He leapt from his box, opened the door, and assisted them in.

26At the moment that M. de Fersen shut the door, an empty fiacre passed by. Seeing a brother cabman stopping, he stopped likewise, and began to enter into a conversation about the times.

27M. de Fersen, a man of ready wit, sustained the conversation wonderfully, and, drawing a snuff-box from his pocket, offered his friend a pinch.

28He plunged his fingers deep into the box, took a long and voluptuous sniff, and drove on.

29At this moment the King, followed by his garde du corps, came out in his turn, his hands in his pockets, and swaggering like a well-to-do tradesman.

30He was followed by the second garde.

31During his passage, one of the buckles of his shoes slipped off. The King did not care to stop for such a trifling matter as that, but the garde who came after him picked it up.

32M. de Fersen got in front of the King.

33“And the Queen, sire?” asked he.

34“The Queen follows us,” replied the King.

35He then got into the carriage in his turn.

36They awaited the Queen.

37Half an hour passed, and she did not arrive.

38What detained her?

39The Queen was lost. She maintained that the Wicket de l’Echelle was to the right. The third garde, not knowing Paris well, yielded to the Queen’s certainty, though he fancied that it was to the left.

40They therefore left by the wicket at the water’s side; got confused on the quays; crossed the bridge; walked down the Rue du Bac, where the Queen was forced to acknowledge her error, as they had completely lost their way.

41The garde was compelled to inquire the way to the Wicket de l’Echelle. They had to cross the Place de Carrousel a second time. Under the arch, they found themselves face to face with some lacqueys, carrying torches, and escorting a carriage which was approaching at a trot. The Queen had just time to turn her face to the wall, in order to avoid being recognised.

42She had recognised Lafayette.

43The garde came to the front, in order to the more effectually screen her.

44But she struck the wheels of the carriage with the little cane that ladies carried at that period, saying, “Go to, gaoler!—I am out of thy power.”

45This is but a tradition; the garde says, on the contrary, that the Queen was so frightened, that she dropped his arm and fled, but that he ran after her, took her by the hand, and drew her back.

46They crossed the Carrousel at full speed, passed the Wicket de l’Echelle, and at last saw the carriage which was awaiting them.

47M. de Fersen assisted the Queen into the vehicle, and she sank into her seat by the side of the King, trembling with fear.

48M. de Fersen had stopped a voiture, for the accommodation of the three gardes du corps.

49They jumped into it, telling the driver to follow the other vehicle.

50M. de Fersen, who knew not Paris much better than the garde du corps, who had followed the Queen, fearing to get lost in the streets, went to Faubourg St. Honoré, along the length of the Tuileries.

51Thence, he soon found his way to the barrière of Clichy.

52A few paces before the house of Mr. Crawford, the gardes du corps got down, paid and dismissed their vehicle, and took their places behind the other.

53The travelling berlin was ready when they arrived.

54The change was effected.

55M. de Fersen overturned his carriage in a ditch, then mounted on the box of the berlin. One of his men mounted a horse, and conducted them to Daumont.

56They took at least an hour to arrive at Bondy.

57All progressed capitally.

58At Bondy, they found the two femmes-de-chambre, who were to have awaited them at Claye.

59It appeared that they came in a cabriolet, expecting to find at Bondy a post-chaise; but there were none, so they had struck a bargain with the postmaster for a cabriolet, the price of which was a thousand francs.

60The driver of the other cabriolet was brushing down his horse previously to returning to Paris.

61At this place, M. de Fersen was to leave their Majesties.

62He kissed the King’s hand, in order that he might be able to kiss the Queen’s.

63M. de Fersen would rejoin them in Austria.

64He returned to Paris, to acquaint himself with what was going on; he would then start for Brussels.

65Man proposes, God disposes.

66The Queen, two years later, was executed in the Place de la Revolution; and M. de Person perished at Stockholm, where he was slain in a riot, stricken to death by blows from umbrellas, administered by drunken women.

67But, mercifully, the future was not known to them. They parted full of hope.

68M. de Valory borrowed a post-horse, and galloped on in advance, to command the relays.

69M. de Malden and De Moustier took their seats on the box of the berlin, which set off at the full speed of which six vigorous horses were capable.

70The cabriolet came on in the rear.

71M. de Fersen followed with his eyes the carriage, rapidly disappearing in the distance; and when it had entirely disappeared, he got into his own carriage, and returned to Paris.

72He had on his costume as coachman; and much did it astonish the driver of the cabriolet to see a coachman kissing the hands of the King, disguised as a domestic.

73It is true that M. de Fersen had only kissed the King’s hands in order to be able to go through the same ceremony with regard to the Queen.

74That was another imprudence added to those which we have already mentioned.

75All went well as far as Montmirail, where the traces of the royal carriage snapped asunder.

76It was necessary to stop. They thus lost two hours—the days were long; the night of the 20th of June is the shortest in the year.

77Then they came to a hill. The King insisted on their walking up; thus they lost another half-hour.

78Half-past four sounded from the cathedral as the berlin entered Châlons, and stopped at the post-house, then situated at the end of the Rue St. Jacques.

79M. de Valory approached the carriage.

80“All goes well, Francis,” said the Queen to him. “It seems to me that, if there had been an intention of stopping us, it would have been put into execution before now.”

81In speaking to M. de Valory, the Queen disclosed her countenance.

82The King likewise imprudently showed himself.

83The postmaster, Oudes, recognized him; one of the spectators, whom curiosity had drawn to the spot, at once knew that it was the King.

84The postmaster saw the above-mentioned spectator disappear, and consequently feared some evil to the King.

85“Sire,” said he, in a whisper, “for heaven’s sake do not expose yourself, or you are lost!” Then, speaking to the postilions, “How now, idlers!” cried he. “Is this the way that you treat well-to-do travellers who pay thirty sous?”

86And he himself, to set an example to the postilions, put his shoulder to the work.

87The horses were put to, and the carriage was in readiness speedily.

88“Off you go!” cried the postmaster.

89The first postilion wished to raise his horses into a gallop. They both fell, but gained their feet again on the application of the whip. They wished to upset the carriage. The two horses under the guidance of the second postilion fell in their turn.

90They drew the postilion from under the horse he had been riding, with the loss of one of his boots.

91The horses picked themselves up, the postilion regained his boot, and, putting it on, he remounted his saddle.

92Off goes the carriage.

93The travelers breathe again.

94But as the postmaster had warned them of danger, in place of riding in front, M. de Valory took up his position by the side of the carriage.

95The fact of the horses having fallen one after the other, without any apparent reason, seemed to the Queen a presage of evil to come.

96As yet, however, they had escaped the consequences of recognition.

97The man who witnessed the arrival of the berlin had ran to the Mayor’s house; but that official was a Royalist. However, the witness swore that he recognised the King and the other members of the royal family; so the Mayor, driven into his last entrenchment, was forced to proceed forthwith to the Rue St. Jacques; but, happily, when he arrived there, he found that the carriage had started some five minutes before.

98Passing through the gates of the city, and noticing the ardor with which the postilion urged on their steeds, the Queen, and Madame Elizabeth gave vent each to the same cry:—“We are saved!”

99But at that very moment a man, arisen, as it were, suddenly from the very bosom of the earth, passed on horseback to the door of the carriage, and said, “Your measures are badly taken! You will be stopped!”

100It was never known who this man was.

101By good luck, they were distant only four leagues from Pont-de-Somme-Vesles, where M. de Choiseul was awaiting them with his forty hussars.

102Perhaps they should have sent M. de Valory to the rear, in order to prevent this.

103But the last warning had increased the Queen’s terrors, and she would not part with one of her defenders.

104They incited the postilions to greater speed.

105The four leagues were accomplished in an hour.

106They arrived at Pont-de-Somme-Vesles, a little hamlet, consisting of two or three houses. They pierced with their eyes the wood which overshadowed the farm to the left; and the trees which indicated the windings of the river on the right, formed, as it were, a curtain of green to hide the modest streamlet from the curious eye, but still no De Choiseul, no De Goguelot, no forty hussars were to be seen.

107On seeing that the place was desolate, the Queen uttered the words “We are lost!”

108In the meantime, let us explain why the hussars were not at their post.

109At eleven o’clock M. de Choiseul, still accompanied by Léonard, in tears, who knew not where they were taking him, and who believed himself to be the victim of some unjustifiable violence, arrived at Pont-de-Somme-Vesles.

110The hussars, as yet, were not at their posts; all around was tranquil.

111He alighted at the post-house, his example being followed by Léonard, who had the diamonds still concealed in his bosom, and asked for a private chamber in which to don his uniform.

112Léonard watched him; his cup of misery was filled to the brim.

113Now that M. de Choiseul had, as he believed, nothing to fear, he found time to pity him.

114“My dear Léonard!” said he, “it is time that you knew the whole truth.”

115“How the truth? Do I not, then, already know the truth?”

116“You know a portion. It is now my duty to tell you the rest. You are devoted to your customers, are you not, my dear Léonard?”

117“In life and death, M. le Comte.”

118“Well, in two hours they will be here—in two hours they will be saved.”

119The hot tears coursed down poor Léonard’s cheeks, but this time they were tears of joy.

120“In two hours?” cried he, at last. “Are you sure of it?”

121“Yes; they were to have left the Tuileries at eleven or half-past, in the evening; they were to arrive at Châlons at mid-day; and an hour, or, at most, an hour and a half, is sufficient to cover the four leagues from Châlons to this place. They will be here in an hour at the latest. I am awaiting a detachment of hussars, which should arrive here under the command of M. Goguelot.”

122Hearing a rumbling sound, M. de Choiseul put his head out of the window.

123“Ah, there they are, coming from the direction of Cilloy!”

124And, in fact, the hussars were, at the moment, on the point of entering the village.

125“Come on!—all is well!” said M. de Choiseul.

126And he waved his hat, making signs out of the window.

127A horseman approached at a gallop.

128M. de Choiseul went down stairs to meet him.

129The two gentlemen met in the high road.

130The horseman, who was M. Goguelot, gave M. de Choiseul a packet from M. de Bouillé. This packet contained six blank signatures, and a copy of the order which had been given by the King to every officer of the army whatsoever his grade, commanding them in all things to obey M. de Choiseul.

131The hussars rode up. M. de Choiseul ordered them to picket their horses, and caused rations of bread and wine to be served out to them.

132The news which M. Goguelot brought was bad. All along his route, everybody had been in a state of expectation. The reports of the King’s flight, which had been disseminated about for more than a year, had spread from Paris to the provinces; and the sight of the different bodies of men arriving at Dun, Varennes, Clermont, and St. Menehould, had awakened suspicion. The tocsin had been sounded in a village by the side of the road.

133M. de Choiseul had ordered dinner for M. de Goguelot and himself.

134The two young men drew up to the table, leaving the detachment under the command of M. de Boudet.

135At the expiration of half an hour, M. de Choiseul fancied that he heard a noise outside the door.

136He went out.

137The peasants from the neighboring villages had begun to crowd round the soldiers.

138Whence came these peasants, in a country which was almost a desert?

139It was surmised that some days before the inhabitants of a tract of land, near Pont-de-Somme-Vesles, belonging to Madame d’Elbœuf, had refused the payment of irredeemable rights, on the strength of which they had been threatened with military law.

140But the federation of 1790 had made France one great family; and the peasants of the villages had promised the tenants of Madame d’Elbœuf to use their arms if any soldiers showed themselves in the vicinity.

141As we know, forty had arrived.

142On seeing them Madame d’Elbœuf’s tenants believed that they had come with hostile intentions against them; so they sent messages to all the neighboring villages, imploring them to keep their promise.

143Those situate nearest arrived first, and that is how M. de Choiseul, on arising from table, found a turbulent throng of peasants surrounding the hussars.

144He believed that curiosity alone had drawn them thither, and, without paying any further attention to them, gained the most elevated part of the road, which runs in a straight line through the plain of Châlons to St. Menehould.

145A little further on than could be seen with the naked eye was the village itself.

146An hour slipped away.

147Two hours, three hours, four hours, followed in the track of the first.

148The fugitives ought to have arrived in one hour at Pont-de-Somme-Vesles; and the time they had lost on the road made it half-past four, as we have said, before they arrived at Châlons.

149M. de Choiseul was anxious.

150Léonard was in despair.

151About three o’clock, the numbers of peasants increased; their intentions became more hostile, and the tocsin began to sound.

152The hussars were, perhaps, more unpopular than any other corps in the army, on account of their supposed plundering propensities. The peasants provoked them by all sorts of insults and menaces, and sang under their very noses—

153“The hussars are forlorn,

154And we laugh them to scorn. ”

155Presently better informed people came up, and spread a report that the hussars had come, not to injure Madame d’Elbœuf’s tenants, but to escort the King and Queen.

156This was also a very serious matter.

157At about half-past four, M. de Choiseul and his hussars were so completely hemmed in, that the three officers counselled together as to what was best to be done.

158They agreed unanimously that it was impossible that they could hold out much longer.

159The number of peasants was augmented to about three hundred, many of whom were armed.

160If, by ill luck, the King and Queen arrived at this critical juncture, forty men, supposing that each killed his adversary, would be insufficient to protect them.

161M. de Choiseul re-read his orders:—

162“Manage in such a manner that the King’s carriage shall continue its progress without interruption.”

163But his presence and that of the forty men became an obstacle instead of a support.

164There was no doubt about it. Their best plan was to depart.

165But a pretext must be found.

166M. de Choiseul, in the midst of some five or six hundred gaping peasants who surrounded him, summoned the postmaster.

167“Monsieur,” said he, “we are here for the purpose of escorting a treasure, but this treasure does not arrive. Do you know if any gold has been this last day or so to Metz?”

168“This morning,” replied the postmaster, “the diligence brought a hundred thousand crowns, and was escorted by two gendarmes.”

169If the postmaster had been prompted, he could not have spoken better.

170“It was Robin and me who escorted it,” cried a gendarme, hidden among the crowd.

171Then M. de Choiseul, turning to M. Goguelot, said, “Monsieur, the Ministry have preferred the ordinary mode of carriage. As a hundred thousand crowns have passed through here this morning, our further presence here is unnecessary. Trumpeter, sound boot and saddle, and we will be off.”

172The trumpeter obeyed.

173In a second, the hussars, who wished nothing better than to be off, were mounted.

174“Gentlemen of the hussars, march. Form by fours, and proceed at a foot pace.”

175And he and his forty men left Pont-de-Somme-Vesles at five punctually by his watch.

176The detachment was to have fallen upon Varennes. He took the by-road in order to avoid St. Menehould, but lost his way above Mofficourt.

177The little troop hesitated for a moment, when a horseman coming from Neuville saw the perplexity of M. de Choiseul, and finding that he was a Royalist and a gentleman, asked if he could be of any assistance to him.

178“Indeed you can,” replied M. de Choiseul. “You can conduct us to Varennes by the Chalade.”

179“Follow me, then,” cried the gentleman.

180And he placed himself at the head of the hussars.

181This gentleman was no other than M. de Malmy, and that is how it was that I met him on the Place Latry, between two officers whom I knew not—namely, M. de Choiseul and M. Goguelot.