On the 16th a committee was held in the King’s apartments, at which a most important question was discussed:  whether his Majesty should quit Versailles and set off with the troops whom he had recently ordered to withdraw, or go to Paris to tranquillise the minds of the people.  The Queen was for the departure.  On the evening of the 16th she made me take all her jewels out of their cases, to collect them in one small box, which she might carry off in her own carriage.  With my assistance she burnt a large quantity of papers; for Versailles was then threatened with an early visit of armed men from Paris.

The Queen, on the morning of the 16th, before attending another committee at the King’s, having got her jewels ready, and looked over all her papers, gave me one folded up but not sealed, and desired me not to read it until she should give me an order to do so from the King’s room, and that then I was to execute its contents; but she returned herself about ten in the morning; the affair was decided; the army was to go away without the King; all those who were in imminent danger were to go at the same time.  “The King will go to the Hotel de Ville to-morrow,” said the Queen to me; “he did not choose this course for himself; there were long debates on the question; at last the King put an end to them by rising and saying, ’Well, gentlemen, we must decide; am I to go or to stay?  I am ready to do either.’  The majority were for the King staying; time will show whether the right choice has been made.”  I returned the Queen the paper she had given me, which was now useless; she read it to me; it contained her orders for the departure; I was to go with her, as well on account of my office about her person as to serve as a teacher to Madame.  The Queen tore the paper, and said, with tears in her eyes, “When I wrote this I thought it would be useful, but fate has ordered otherwise, to the misfortune of us all, as I much fear.”

After the departure of the troops the new administration received thanks; M. Necker was recalled.  The artillery soldiers were undoubtedly corrupted.  “Wherefore all these guns?” exclaimed the crowds of women who filled the streets.  “Will you kill your mothers, your wives, your children?”—­“Don’t be afraid,” answered the soldiers; “these guns shall rather be levelled against the tyrant’s palace than against you!”

The Comte d’Artois, the Prince de Conde, and their children set off at the same time with the troops.  The Duc and Duchesse de Polignac, their daughter, the Duchesse de Guiche, the Comtesse Diane de Polignac, sister of the Duke, and the Abbe de Baliviere, also emigrated on the same night.  Nothing could be more affecting than the parting of the Queen and her friend; extreme misfortune had banished from their minds the recollection of differences to which political opinions alone had given rise.  The Queen several times wished to go and embrace her once more after their sorrowful adieu, but she was too closely watched.