th
of the bankers of Frankfort, to whom the people were accustomed to
attribute everything that was singular and bizarre, had been most
admirably combined by the Count de Fersen, to account for anything
strange or remarkable in the appearance of the royal equipages; nothing,
however, excited attention, and they arrived without interruption at
Montmirail, a little town between Meaux and Chalons: there some
necessary repairs to the berlin detained them an hour; this delay,
during which the king's flight might be discovered, and couriers
despatched to give information to all the country, threw them into the
greatest alarm.

However the carriage was soon repaired, and they once more started on
their journey, ignorant that this hour's delay would ultimately cost the
lives of four out of five persons who composed the royal family.

They were full of security and confidence; the success with which they
had escaped from the palace, the manner in which they had left Paris,
the punctuality with which the relays were furnished, the loneliness of
the roads, the absence of anything like suspicion or vigilance in the
towns they had passed through, the dangers they had left behind them,
the security they were so fast approaching, each turn of the wheel
bringing them nearer M. de Bouille and his faithful troops; the beauty
of the scene and the time, doubly beautiful to their eyes, that for two
years had looked on nought save the seditious mob that daily filled the
courts of the Tuileries, or the glittering bayonets of the armed
populace beneath their windows,--all this seemed to them as if
Providence had at last taken pity on them, that the fervent and touching
prayers of the babes that slept in their arms, and of the angelic Madame
Elizabeth had at last vanquished the fate that had so long pursued them.

It was under the influence of these happy feelings that they entered
Chalons, the only large town through which they had to pass, at
half-past three in the afternoon. A few idlers gathered round the
carriage whilst the horses were being changed; the king somewhat
imprudently put his head out of the window, and was recognised by the
post-master; but this worthy man felt that his sovereign's life was in
his hands, and without manifesting the least surprise, he helped to put
to the horses, and ordered the postilions to drive on; he alone of this
people was free from the blood of his king. The carriage passed the
gates of Chalons, the