CHAPTER IV.
THE KING ARRESTED.
JUNE 26, 1791.--Last night Victoria and I were present at the return ofLouis XVI to Paris. The King was arrested at Varennes, on the night ofthe 22nd of June. Citizen Drouet, an old dragoon and nowmaster-of-the-post at St. Menehould, recognized Louis XVI under hisdisguise of valet-de-chambre while the coaches of the fugitive King werechanging horses in his hostlery. The Queen, armed with a false passport,was traveling under the name of the Baroness of Korff and suite. CitizenDrouet did not dare arrest the fugitives at St. Menehould, the carriagesbeing escorted by one of the detachments of dragoons and hussars whichthe Marquis of Bouille, commander-in-chief at Metz, and accomplice inthe flight of the King, had stationed along the road from Paris to thefrontier. But after the departure of the royal coach Drouet took horsewith one of his postillions, and following a short cut, arrived atVarennes ahead of the mysterious travelers. It was midnight. He at oncegave the alarm and announced the speedy arrival of Louis XVI. TheNational Guard assembled under arms, and proceeded to arrest the Kingimmediately upon his entering the town. Louis and his family wereconveyed back to Paris by Barnave and Petion, the committee-men whomthe Assembly had despatched on that errand.
During the days that elapsed between the King's flight and his forcedreturn to Paris, diverse shades of opinion made themselves manifest inthe capital. Brissot, in his journal, _The French Patriot_, summed up inclear and concise terms the consequences of the events which for fivedays had been agitating the city.
"What is to be done in the present circumstances?" said he. "Six plansare proposed: To abolish royalty and substitute for it a Republicangovernment. To let the question of the King and royalty go before thenation for judgment. To judge the King by a national court. To demandhis abdication. To remove Louis Capet and name a Regent--and, finally,to leave the King on the throne, and give him an elective cabinet. Thefirst proposition is comprehensive: An end of Kings; let us beRepublicans."
The sentiment for a Republic was growing greatly, as also was the publicindignation against Louis XVI, and against the constitutionalistmajority of the Assembly. Several causes worked toward these results,chief among them being the manifesto of the Marquis of Bouille, themonarchist commander, addressed to the people, and winding up with thethreat:
I know my forces. Soon your chastisement will serve as a memorable example to posterity! That is how a man must speak to you in whom you at first inspired pity. Accuse no one of conspiracy against your infernal Constitution. The King did not give the orders that have been given: I alone have ordered everything. Against me, then, whet your daggers and prepare your poisons. You shall answer for the days of the King to all the Kings of the world. Touch a hair of his head, and there will not remain one stone upon another in Paris. I know the roads. I shall conduct the foreign armies. Farewell, messieurs; I end without comment. You know my sentiments.
MARQUIS OF BOUILLE.
These insults, these menaces, addressed to the Revolution, to France inthe name of all the Kings of the world by a royalist confidant andaccomplice of Louis XVI, by a general who, "knowing the roads, wouldlead the foreign armies upon Paris, of which he would not leave onestone upon another," unveiled, with brutal frankness, the plan of thefederated sovereigns. Nevertheless, such was the blindness of theNational Assembly that instead of declaring the deposition of Louis XVIand bringing him before their bar, they contented themselves withdecreeing: "That a guard be given to the King to be responsible for hisperson, and that the accomplices of his flight be examined by thecommittee-men of the Assembly, who will also hear the statements ofLouis XVI and the Queen."
We went, Victoria and I, to the Elysian Fields, about six in the eveningof the 25th of June, to be present at the entry of Louis into his goodcity of Paris.
A vast concourse of people covered the Elysian Fields and Louis XVPlace. After great effort we succeeded in drawing near to the doublecordon formed by the National Guard to allow a free passage to the royalcortege. A murmur beginning in the distance and drawing nearer andnearer announced the arrival of the King. General Lafayette passed by ata gallop, escorted by a brilliant staff of blue-bonnets, on his way tomeet the carriages.
The brave Santerre, so highly esteemed by the inhabitants of the St.Antoine suburb, also passed by on horseback to join the royal escort. Hewas accompanied by two patriots, Fournier the American, and the Marquisof St. Huruque, one of those aristocrats who embraced the revolutionarycause. Santerre advanced at the head of his battalion, recruited amongthe districts of St. Antoine. Nearly every citizen in that corps, tooneedy to purchase a uniform, was dressed in his workman's habiliments.The greater part of them bore pike-staffs in lieu of guns. The aspect ofthese men--their half-bared breasts, their honest, energetic and blufffaces, their resolute attitude, their every-day working clothes, andtheir proletarian woolen caps--offered a striking contrast to that ofthe "Bearskins," as were called, from their head-gear, the grenadiers ofthe National Guard from the districts in the center of Paris, nearly allconstitutional monarchists.
Soon, repeated nearer and nearer, were heard the words: "Here comes theKing! Here comes Capet! Here are Monsieur and Madam Veto!" All eyes wereturned toward the royal equipages. As they drove by, a storm began togather, the lightning flickered and the thunder growled; the heavensgrew dark and lent a doleful illumination to the spectacle of which wewere the witnesses. A battalion of the National Guard, preceded byLafayette's staff-officers, led the way; then came the two royalcoaches. Ah, this was no longer the time of monarchic splendors, paidfor out of the sweat of an enslaved people! This was no longer the timeof gilded coaches, surrounded by pages and lackeys, and fleetly drawn byeight horses richly caparisoned, preceded by outriders in dashingliveries, escorted by equerries, guards, and gentlemen loaded with goldand silver broideries, and flashing like a dazzling whirlwind along theavenues of the royal parks!
The first of the two carriages in which the royal family and its suitewere riding under escort, was an enormous yellow berlin, which hadserved Louis in his flight. Covered with dust and mire, it was draggedby six post-horses harnessed on with ropes, and mounted by postillionswhose hats bore long tricolored ribbons and cockades.
The carriage went by at a walk, giving all a good view of the royalfamily. Louis XVI was dressed in a maroon suit with a straightcollar--his disguise as valet-de-chambre to the pretended Baroness ofKorff. He occupied a seat at the right, in the bottom of the berlin, atthe side of which General Lafayette strutted on horseback. The bloatedface of Louis XVI, imprinted with the spineless inertia of hischaracter, expressed neither fear, nor anger, nor surprise. With hiselbow he nudged the Queen, who was seated beside him, and pointed out toher with his finger one of the placards, which bore in large letters thewords: "Silence, and remain covered, citizens. The King is to passbefore his judges."
In the front part of the carriage we saw the King's sister, MadamElizabeth, her face sad and sweet. She seemed greatly afraid, and heldher eyes cast down. Close beside her was Petion, one of thecommissioners of the Assembly, grave and severe. The other commissioner,Barnave, one of the chiefs of the Girondin party, a fine-looking youngman, attached at times a furtive but passionate gaze upon MarieAntoinette, with whom, according to report, he was already seriouslysmitten. Between his knees he held the Dauphin, Marie Antoinette's son,a pretty child with golden curly hair, who laughed and smiled withboyish carefreeness.
The second coach contained the personages of the court who hadparticipated in the King's escape. Next came a little open carriagetrimmed with green twigs from which floated the tricolored flag. In thisvehicle, standing erect, in an attitude of triumph, rode Drouet thepost-keeper and his postillion William, both of whom had helped bringabout the arrest of the King at Varennes.
The procession was closed by the St. Antoine battalion, commanded bySanterre. As it came in sight the people cried with one voice, "Longlive the law! Long live the Nation!" Then the storm broke over Paris,an
d amidst such exclamations, mingled with the crashing of thunder,Louis XVI entered as a prisoner the palace of his fathers.
Such was the blindness of the Assembly in its bourgeois egotism, in itsmistrust of the people, in its absurd hatred of republican government,that it still thought to impose upon France the authority of this King,disgraced, despised even by his own partisans, and convicted of perjury,treason, and conspiracy with the foreigner.