they were augmented by
the voice of a person unknown, who, passing close to the carriage in full
gallop, cried out, bending towards the window without slackening his
speed, "You are recognised!" They arrived with beating hearts at the
gates of Varennes without meeting one of the horsemen by whom they were to
have been escorted into the place. They were ignorant where to find their
relays, and some minutes were lost in waiting, to no purpose. The
cabriolet had preceded them, and the two ladies in attendance found the
bridge already blocked up with old carts and lumber. The town guards were
all under arms. The King at last entered Varennes. M. de Goguelat had
arrived there with his detachment. He came up to the King and asked him
if he chose to effect a passage by force! What an unlucky question to put
to Louis XVI., who from the very beginning of the Revolution had shown in
every crisis the fear he entertained of giving the least order which might
cause an effusion of blood! "Would it be a brisk action?" said the King.
"It is impossible that it should be otherwise, Sire," replied the
aide-decamp. Louis XVI. was unwilling to expose his family. They
therefore went to the house of a grocer, Mayor of Varennes. The King
began to speak, and gave a summary of his intentions in departing,
analogous to the declaration he had 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 Fra