WHAT HAPPENED AT PARIS BEFORE THE DEPARTURE.
My story would be incomplete did I not follow the royal family in
their flight from the moment that they left the Palace of Tuileries,
till their appearance at the top of the Rue des Réligieuses; and did
I not tell you through what circumstances M. Drouet was led to make
his appearance in time to change the face of events, and to give that
terrible blow to the throne of the Bourbons which occasioned Louis
XVI not only the loss of his crown, but of his head.
I have already told you that Mirabeau, on his death-bed, asserted
that the King’s only hope rested in flight now that he was deprived
of his assistance.
From that moment, Louis XVI had but one idea—to leave Paris—to leave
France—to fly to a foreign land.
We have mentioned the date of April, 1791.
This is what happened on that date.
The King had wished to go to St. Cloud; that was on the Easter Monday.
The King, the Queen, the bishops, the servants, filled the carriages
in which they were to make the short travel of two leagues; but the
people prevented the King from leaving the Tuileries.
The King insisted; the tocsin of Saint Roch began to sound an alarm.
He leaned back in his carriage; thousands of voices cried, “No, no!
He is going to fly!”
“I love you too well to leave you!” said the King.
“We, also, love you!” replied the spectators, with one voice; “but
you alone!”
The Queen, shut out from the love of France, wept and stamped; but,
for all that, was obliged to re-enter the Tuileries.
The King was a prisoner, there was no doubt about it; but it is
permitted to a prisoner to escape.
From this moment the King prepared for flight.
Two other parties were as desirous as the King that he should leave
France.
The one, the Royalist party, because the King, once free, would
be able to re-enter France with a foreign army; the other, the
Republican party, because they could not form a republic, without
cutting his head off.
Therefore, one will perceive that they who arrested the King belonged
to a third party—the Constitution.
His decision taken, the King began to put it into execution.
The Queen was the mainspring of the plot; the princesses of the
house of Austria have been invariably evil genii to the Kings of
France—Marie de Medicis, Anne of Austria, Marie Antoinette, and Marie
Louise.
The King might have fled alone, and that was the idea that first
occurred to him; in which case he would have travelled on horseback.
But, during the terrible night of the 5th of October, the Queen
became so frightened, that she made the King swear never to leave
France without her and their children.
It was then resolved that they should all, King, Queen, and children,
fly together.
That doubled, trebled, and quadrupled the difficulty, and made escape
almost an impossibility.
The Queen undertook the deception.
The Queen had more interest than the King in leaving France. Hear you
that cry of the 18th of April, 1791, which interpreted the feelings
of a nation, and which said, “We, also, sire! We love you, _but you
alone_!”
In January, 1791, the flight was resolved upon.
In February, the King wrote to M. de Bouillé:—
“I have overtures to make to you on the part of M. Mirabeau. The
Count de Lamark will be our intermediate.”
He added:—
“Although these people are not very estimable, still I have paid M.
Mirabeau a good sum of money. I think that he will be useful.”
M. de Bouillé replied:—
“Cover with gold the defection of Mirabeau. He is an accomplished
scoundrel, who will repair, through cupidity, the evil that he
has worked through vengeance; but defy Lafayette, enthusiastic,
chimerical, capable, perhaps, of being the chief of a party, but
incapable of supporting a monarchy.”
Remark that De Bouillé was the cousin of Lafayette. He was not, as
one can see, blinded by the relationship.
About the end of April, the King wrote again to M. de Bouillé.
“I go out almost incessantly in my carriage with all my family—a
carriage made expressly to hold all.”
M. de Bouillé replied:—
“In the place of that berlin expressly made, and which will
naturally draw attention, it will be more prudent for your Majesty
to use two English coaches.”
The coaches mentioned were the post-chaises in common use at that
period.
The counsel was good, but the Queen combated the idea. She did not
wish to be separated from the King, and did not wish the children to
be separated from herself.
M. de Bouillé continued:—
“Have with you in your perilous journey a man with the head of a
Solon, and the arm of a Hercules—one who can plan and execute. I
can point such a man out to you. He is the Marquis d’Agout, Major
of the French Guards.”
The King adopted this counsel. We will see, later on, how it was that
M. d’Agout did not arrive at Varennes.
The King, in a third letter, asked M. de Bouillé to establish relays
from Châlons to Montmedy, his intention being to avoid Rheims, where
he had been consecrated, and might be recognized, and pass through
Varennes.
M. de Bouillé replied, that in passing through Rheims, the carriage
blinds could be drawn down; but that he was sorry that the King
persisted in using that noticeable berlin; that at two points on the
road to Varennes there were no post-horses, so it would be necessary
to send some; and, lastly, that as there were no soldiers on that
route, it would be necessary to order up some detachments, which
might excite suspicion.
The King persisted in going the Varennes route.
He sent a million in assignats to M. de Bouillé, to defray whatever
expenses there might be with regard to troops, &c., &c., and asked
him to send an experienced officer to reconnoitre the road to
Varennes.
M. de Bouillé could not but obey so positive a command.
He sent, on the 10th of June, M. Goguelot to reconnoitre—a mission
fitted only for a courageous and intelligent officer.
M. Goguelot was both.
On the appointed day the detachment set out.
One might have seen a train of artillery of six pieces setting out
for Montmedy, the Royal Germans taking the Stenay route, a squadron
of hussars going towards Dun, and another towards Varennes; and
at the same time, fifty detached men under the command of M. de
Choiseul, pushed on for Pont-de-Somme-Vesles, where the King would
meet them as first post.
Afterwards, at St. Menehould, he would have found a detachment of
dragoons, under the command of M. Dandouins.
At Clermont he would have found another detachment, under the command
of M. de Damas.
He would have found the relays and a detachment of hussars, under the
command of MM. Bouillé, _fils_, and De Raigecourt, at Varennes, and
at Stenay he would have found M. Stenay in person.
All being arranged, the King wrote to De Bouillé, fixing the day for
the 19th of the June following.