this proposed flight, until to the dread of violence to his family and person a new inducement was added.

Beside the person above alluded to, there was another ex-minister of France who had also been obliged to fly the country. He was supposed to have enjoyed much of the queen's confidence; notwithstanding which, and his former eminent situation, the scheme adopted by the emperor for the re-establishment of the king's authority had been carefully concealed from him: but in spite of all the care he came to the knowledge of it, and actually procured a copy of the articles given to Count Durfurt. His former eminent situation in France, and the queen's confidence, which he still enjoyed, gave him a just claim, as it was most natural for him to think, to be consulted in whatever regarded the king's restoration; and the design of excluding him from any part in a measure of so much importance, could not fail to exasperate him against the person whom he thought the cause of this exclusion. Whether he was at all actuated by resentment, or entirely from a persuasion that M. de Bouillé's plan was preferable, he knows best; but it is believed that he found means to prepossess the queen so strongly in favour of the plan proposed by M. de Bouillé, that she prevailed on the king to persevere in it, and to reject the other when it was afterwards communicated to him by the count Durfort.

There is one consideration which seems not to have occurred to those ministers, namely, that in adopting either of their plans the king would be considered as having broken the oath he had taken to continue faithful to the constitution; and that, after the declaration made by his ambassadors at foreign courts, announced by his minister in the assembly, this conduct would appear deceitful in the highest degree to the nation.

That those two ministers were sincere in their wishes for the restoration of the king's authority will not be disputed. The point on which they differed was, which of them should have the honour of doing it. But as this

was a point of no manner of importance to their royal master, provided it was done at all, some people blame the one for concealing from the other the plan agreed to by the emperor for that purpose; and different people blame that other for counteracting it by the advice he sent to the queen. And thus it is insinuated that those two ministers were influenced by jealousy and selfish motives, instead of sacrificing all considerations to the great object of serving the king. This construction seems too severe; but whether it be so or not, no inference can be drawn to the disadvantage of any existing minister in any country of Europe; for, even if it could be proved that the two ministers in question were influenced by motives of interest or ambition, more than by regard for their sovereign, it ought to be remembered that they were both out of place; and that nothing is more different than the sentiments of ministers out of place from those of ministers who are in.

CHAPTER XXV.

The Royal Family escape from Paris-are stopped at Varennes -Various Incidents on that occasion-They are obliged to return to Paris-Reflections.

IN

In consequence of the plan formed by M. de Bouillé for

N

the escape of the royal family, the king and queen, without any attendant, came, on the 11th of June, to the apartment of madame de Rochereuil, a lady in the queen's service; and, after examining the rooms and their communications minutely, informed her that they were needed for another person. This apartment communicated by a corridor with the queen's.

On the 17th, as M. Dumoustier, who had formerly belonged to the garde-du-corps, was walking alone in the garden of the Tuilleries, a person whom he did not know accosted him, and desired that he would follow him into the palace. Dumoustier was directly gonducted to the

king, to whom he had never before had the honour of speaking. His majesty desired that he might order for himself, and for Messrs. Maldent and Valory, two of his old companions, three couriers jackets of a yellow colour; and that he should walk the same evening on the quay of the Pont Royal, where he would be joined by a person who would give him farther instructions.

All these directions were carefully attended to; and, in consequence of the instructions given to Dumoustier by the unknown person at the quay, Valory went on the 20th to Bondy to order horses and wait there for the king. Dumoustier was at the Porte Saint Martin with a coach and four. A coach with only two horses arrived about eleven in the Cour des Princes. M. Maldent entered the palace privately at nine in the evening, and was conducted into a small chamber, where he remained until near twelve. Nothing extraordinary was observed in the appearance or conduct of any of the royal family. They retired at their usual hour; and the usual orders were given for the following day.

The queen then gave orders that the prince and princess royal should be dressed, and conducted to a room where she herself was with the king and the princess Elizabeth. There were besides two unknown men, one of whom immediately was directed to conduct the two female attendants on the prince and princess royal to a chaise which was found waiting for them on the Quai Voltaire. Having placed them in the carriage, their conductor withdrew; and the ladies were driven to Claye. The other unknown person accompanied the prince and princess royal and Madame de Tourzel by the apartment of Madame de Rouchereuil into the Cour des Princes; where having entered the coach with two horses, they were driven to the Carousel, and soon joined by the queen and the princess Elizabeth who came together without any attendant, and were helped into the carriage by the coachman. The king came last, attended by M. Maldent who mounted behind the coach, which was immediately driven to the Porte

Although they came out

Saint Martin; and having exchanged it for the carriage with four horses which awaited them under the care of M. Dumoustier, they were all driven to Bondy, where M. Valory had horses in readiness. The chaise with the two ladies joined them on the road. of the carriage at some of the post-houses, and the king conversed familiarly and with apparent ease with several persons he met there, they were not once suspected to be other than the characters they assumed, until they arrived at St. Menehould, about 170 miles from Paris-a town since distinguished by the memorable stand made by the French under the command of Dumourier.

Monsieur the king's brother and his consort were comprehended in M. de Bouillé's plan. They left the palace of Luxembourg about the same time that the king and queen left the Tuilleries; but it was agreed for various reasons that they should take a different road; and accordingly directing their course by Flanders, they arrived safely at Mons.

The king and queen were not so fortunate, though at this place they may naturally be supposed to have thought all their own danger over, to have been solicitous only about that of monsieur and madame, and wishing them the same good fortune with themselves. Drouet, the postmaster at St. Menehould, had never seen either the king or queen; but he had seen a portrait of her majesty, and was struck with the resemblance of that portrait to his guest, the pretended Baroness Kroff, which was the name the queen had assumed. This, however, might have passed without making much impression, had not he recollected that two detachments, the one of hussars, and the other of dragoons, had arrived the same day at St. Menehould. The former had already left the town; the latter were still in it. While he was ruminating on this circumstance, which he thought a little extraordinary, he observed the officer who commanded the dragoons speaking to one of the couriers in a manner somewhat mysterious, while the other couriers, having paid the former postilions too li

berally, were impatiently pushing the new ones to make haste. These observations revived the suspicions which the sight of the queen had raised in the mind of Drouet; but still they did not form a presumption strong enough to justify him in stopping the carriages, which were allowed to proceed. But soon after their departure, when Drouet perceived that the dragoons were preparing to follow them, his suspicions amounting in his mind to a certainty, without farther hesitation he called To arms! asserting that it certainly was the royal family that had just passed; that it was the duty of good citizens to prevent their going out of the kingdom; and he instigated all around to hinder the dragoons from following the carriages. Drouet was believed in his assertions; and, what seems a little unaccountable, his directions were literally followed. The whole detachment of dragoons remained passive, instead of silencing Drouet, and riding after the king, as might have been expected. Drouet, with a person of the name of Guillaume, set out on horseback with all expedition to Clermont, and was there informed, that instead of going to Metz, as the couriers who attended the carriages had given out, they had taken the road to Varennes, on which he and his companion by a cross road, impracticable to carriages, went to that place, and arrived at the inn of the Bras d'Or some minutes before the king.

They informed Le Blanc, the innkeeper, that two carriages were on the point of arriving with the king and royal family, who were secretly withdrawing from the kingdom; that it was every body's duty to stop them; and there was not a moment to be lost. Le Blanc immediately ran with this intelligence to the procureur syndic, who acted as chief magistrate in the absence of the mayor, who being a member of the national assembly was then at Paris. The procureur sent his servants to rouse all the municipal officers, the national guards belonging to the town, and the inhabitants in general. Drouet and Guillaume dragged a loaded waggon which they perceived in the street, and overset it across the bridge, to ob