erent 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 pointed out to him.
He had been told (which was the case) that there existed a secret
communication from the queen's cabinet to the apartment of the former
captain of the guard; and that the king, who it is well known was an
expert locksmith, had made false keys that opened all the doors; at last
these reports (that went the round of all the clubs) transformed every
patriot on that night into the king's gaoler. We read with surprise in
the journal of Camille Desmoulins of the 20th of June, 1791:--"The
evening passed most tranquilly at Paris; I returned at eleven o'clock
from the Jacobins' Club with Danton and several other patriots; we only
met a single patrole all the way. Paris appeared to me that night so
deserted, that I could not help remarking it. One of us, Freron, who had
in his pocket a letter warning him that the king would escape that
night, wished to observe the chateau; he saw M. de La Fayette enter it
at eleven."

A little further on Camille Desmoulins relates the restless fears of
the people on the fatal night. "The night," says he "on which the family
of the Capets escaped, Busebi, a perruke-maker in the Rue de Bourbon,
called on Hucher, a baker and Sapeur in the Bataillon of the Theatins,
to communicate his fears on what he had just learnt relative to the
king's projected flight. They instantly aroused their neighbours, to the
number of thirty, and went to La Fayette to inform him of the fact, and
to summon him to take instant measures to prevent it. M. de La Fayette
laughed, and advised them to go home. In order to avoid being stopped by
the patrols, they asked for the pass-word, which he gave them. Armed
with this they hastened to the Tuileries, where nothing was visible
except several hackney coachman drinking round one of the small shops
near the wicket gate of the Carrousel. They inspected all the courts
until they came to the door of the Manege without perceiving anything
suspicious, but at their return they were surprised to find that every
hackney coach had disappeared, which made them conjecture that these
coaches had been used by some of the attendants of this unworthy
(_indigne_) family."

It is too evident from the state of agitation of the public mind and the
severity of the king's captivity, how difficult i