uspect that the treasure was the queen
herself, flying to Austria. Choiseul took alarm; for if the king
arrived in the midst of sedition, the worst might be expected. He had
been positively instructed that the king would pass at half-past two.
Fersen had said that he might rely on it, and there was to be a
courier riding an hour ahead. When three o'clock came, without any
sign of king or courier, Choiseul resolved to move away, hoping that
his departure would allay the ferment and secure safe passage. He sent
Leonard forward, with instructions to the officers in command at St.
Menehould, Clermont, and Varennes, that all seemed to be over for the
day, and that he was starting to join Bouille; and after some further
watching, he withdrew with all his men. For this Bouille afterwards
demanded that he should be tried by court-martial.

It had been settled that if the king did not appear at Bondy by
half-past two in the morning, the courier who had preceded him was to
push on, and warn the officers that there was no more to be done. As
no courier made his appearance in the afternoon, it was certain that
the fugitives had got out of Paris, where the danger lay. If Choiseul
found it necessary to move his men, he was to leave a staff officer,
Goguelat, to wait the king's coming, and to be his guide. But Choiseul
took Goguelat with him, leaving no guide; and instead of keeping on
the high road, to block it at a farther point, he went off into
byways, and never reappeared until all was over at Varennes. His error
is flagrant, but it was due to the more tragic folly of his master.
Not long after he had abandoned his post the king arrived, and passed
unhindered. Again he changed horses without resistance at the next
post-town, which was St. Menehould, and went on to Clermont en
Argonne. Some of the bystanders thought they had recognised him under
his disguise, and the loudest of them was Drouet, who, as postmaster,
had just had a quarrel with one of the officers, and was in the
dangerous mood of a man who has his temper to recover. The town
council assembled, and on hearing the grounds of his suspicion,
commissioned him to follow the travellers and stop their flight. They
did not doubt that Lewis was about to throw himself into the arms of
Austria. It was not his first intention, for he hoped to make a stand
at Montmedy; but the prospect of effective action on French soil had
diminished.

Bouille's command was narrowed. He could