made at Paris.  He spoke with warmth and affability, and endeavoured to demonstrate to the people around him that he had only put himself, by the step he had taken, into a fit situation to treat with the Assembly, and to sanction with freedom the constitution which he would maintain, though many of its articles were incompatible with the dignity of the throne, and the force by which it was necessary that the sovereign should be surrounded.  Nothing could be more affecting, added the Queen, than this moment, in which the King felt bound to communicate to the very humblest class of his subjects his principles, his wishes for the happiness of his people, and the motives which had determined him to depart.

Whilst the King was speaking to this mayor, whose name was Sauce, the Queen, seated at the farther end of the shop, among parcels of soap and candles, endeavoured to make Madame Sauce understand that if she would prevail upon her husband to make use of his municipal authority to cover the flight of the King and his family, she would have the glory of having contributed to restore tranquillity to France.  This woman was moved; she could not, without streaming eyes, see herself thus solicited by her Queen; but she could not be got to say anything more than, “Bon Dieu, Madame, it would be the destruction of M. Sauce; I love my King, but I love my husband too, you must know, and he would be answerable, you see.”  Whilst this strange scene was passing in the shop, the people, hearing that the King was arrested, kept pouring in from all parts.  M. de Goguelat, making a last effort, demanded of the dragoons whether they would protect the departure of the King; they replied only by murmurs, dropping the points of their swords.  Some person unknown fired a pistol at M. de Goguelat; he was slightly wounded by the ball.  M. Romeuf, aide-de-camp to M. de La Fayette, arrived at that moment.  He had been chosen, after the 6th of October, 1789, by the commander of the Parisian guard to be in constant attendance about the Queen.  She reproached him bitterly with the object of his mission.  “If you wish to make your name remarkable, monsieur,” said the Queen to him, “you have chosen strange and odious means, which will produce the most fatal consequences.”  This officer wished to hasten their departure.  The Queen, still cherishing the hope of seeing M. de Bouille arrive with a sufficient force to extricate the King from his critical situation, prolonged her stay at Varennes by every means in her power.

The Dauphin’s first woman pretended to be taken ill with a violent colic, and threw herself upon a bed, in the hope of aiding the designs of her superiors; she went and implored for assistance.  The Queen understood her perfectly well, and refused to leave one who had devoted herself to follow them in such a state of suffering.  But no delay in departing was allowed.  The three Body Guards (Valory, Du Moustier, and Malden) were gagged and fastened upon the seat of the carriage.  A horde of National Guards, animated with fury and the barbarous joy with which their fatal triumph inspired them, surrounded the carriage of the royal family.