The Queen, about the 15th of August, had me informed by letter that I might come back to Paris without being under any apprehension of arrest there, and that she greatly desired my return.  I brought my father-in-law back in a dying state, and on the day preceding that of the acceptation of the constitutional act, I informed the Queen that he was no more.  “The loss of Lassonne and Campan,” said she, as she applied her handkerchief to her streaming eyes, “has taught me how valuable such subjects are to their masters.  I shall never find their equals.”

I resumed my functions about the Queen on the 1st of September, 1791.  She was unable then to converse with me on all the lamentable events which had occurred since the time of my leaving her, having on guard near her an officer whom she dreaded more than all the others.  She merely told me that I should have some secret services to perform for her, and that she would not create uneasiness by long conversations with me, my return being a subject of suspicion.  But next day the Queen, well knowing the discretion of the officer who was to be on guard that night, had my bed placed very near hers, and having obtained the favour of having the door shut, when I was in bed she began the narrative of the journey, and the unfortunate arrest at Varennes.  I asked her permission to put on my gown, and kneeling by her bedside I remained until three o’clock in the morning, listening with the liveliest and most sorrowful interest to the account I am about to repeat, and of which I have seen various details, of tolerable exactness, in papers of the time.

The King entrusted Count Fersen with all the preparations for departure.  The carriage was ordered by him; the passport, in the name of Madame de Korf, was procured through his connection with that lady, who was a foreigner.  And lastly, he himself drove the royal family, as their coachman, as far as Bondy, where the travellers got into their berlin.  Madame Brunier and Madame Neuville, the first women of Madame and the Dauphin, there joined the principal carriage.  They were in a cabriolet.  Monsieur and Madame set out from the Luxembourg and took another road.  They as well as the King were recognised by the master of the last post in France, but this man, devoting himself to the fortunes of the Prince, left the French territory, and drove them himself as postilion.  Madame Thibaut, the Queen’s first woman, reached Brussels without the slightest difficulty.  Madame Cardon, from Arras, met with no hindrance; and Leonard, the Queen’s hairdresser, passed through Varennes a few hours before the royal family.  Fate had reserved all its obstacles for the unfortunate monarch.