The Count de Fersen was the principal agent and confidant of this hazardous enterprise.  Young, handsome, and accomplished, he had been admitted during the happy years of Marie Antoinette’s life to the parties and fetes of Trianon.  It was said, that a chivalrous admiration, to which respect alone prevented his giving the name of love, had bound him to the queen.  And now this admiration had been changed into the most passionate devotion to her in misfortune.  The queen perceived this, and when she reflected to whom she could confide the safety of the king and her children, she thought of M. de Fersen—­he instantly quitted Stockholm, saw the king and queen, and undertook to prepare for the flight the carriages, which were to meet them at Bondy.  His position as a foreigner favoured his plans, and he combined them with a skill only equalled by his fidelity.  Three soldiers of the body guard, MM. de Valorg, de Moustier, et de Maldan, were taken into his confidence, and the parts they were to play were fully explained to them; they were to disguise themselves as servants, mount behind the carriages, and protect the royal family at all risks.  The names of three obscure gentlemen effaced that day the names of the courtiers.  Should they be discovered, their fate was sealed; but in the hope of aiding the escape of their king, they courageously offered themselves as a sacrifice to the popular fury.

VIII.

The queen had for many months entertained the project of escape.  Since the month of March she had commissioned one of her waiting-maids to procure her from Brussels a complete wardrobe for Madame and the Dauphin; she had sent most of her valuables to her sister, the Archduchess Christina, the regent of the Low Countries, under pretence of making her a present; her diamonds had been intrusted to her hair-dresser, Leonard, who had started before herself with the Duke de Choiseul.  These slight indications of a projected flight had not entirely escaped the vigilance of a waiting-maid; this woman had noticed that whispered conversations were carried on; she had seen desks opened on the table, and empty jewel boxes lying about; she denounced these facts to M. de Gouvion, M. de La Fayette’s aide-de-camp, whose mistress she was, and M. de Gouvion reported all again to the mayor of Paris and his general.  But these denunciations had been so often made, and by so many different persons, and had so often proved false, that now but little importance was attached to them.  However, in consequence of the revelations of this woman, a stricter watch than usual was kept around the chateau.  M. de Gouvion detained several officers of the national guard under various pretexts in the palace, he placed them at the different doors, and he himself, with five chefs-de-bataillon, passed part of the night at the door of the apartment formerly occupied by the Duke de Villequier, which had been specially