When the King Took Flight (12 page)

All these well-laid plans, however, were evolving not in a vacuum but in full view of a civilian population that was anything but passive. The townspeople of Varennes were not alone in their
growing apprehension about the unexplained troop movements
throughout the region during the month of June. The pervasive
suspicion of General Bouille, the "butcher of Nancy," and of the
aristocratic officers who commanded in the field was only intensified by the overwhelming presence of German-speaking mercenaries in all the contingents that people now saw passing. The tension was compounded by the army's failure to give ample advance
warning of the arriving cavalrymen. Town leaders were notified at
the last moment that the troops had been sent to protect money being shipped from Paris to pay the army guarding the frontier. But
the story did little to allay local fears. Why were there so many cavalrymen, when a single escort from start to finish should have been
sufficient? Why had the commanders dispatched only Germanspeaking troops? Was a war about to break out-always a critical
question for this frontier region-and, if so, on which side would a
German army led by aristocrats fight? Ironically, then, the very escorts sent to protect the king were arousing great suspicion among
the population through which the king must travel.

In Montmedy the apparent preparation of a large military camp
-and the order to bake i8,ooo rations of bread-had also excited
"mistrust and anxiety." "These extraordinary movements in a time
of peace, aides-de-camp appearing on all the roads, sentinels positioned everywhere, had raised a general alarm among the popula-
tion."23 The people of Clermont, just south of Varennes, watched
as 15o cavalry rode through one day and i 8o more the next, the latter abruptly announcing their intention to stay the night. Few believed the story of the shipment of a strongbox, and rumors spread
that the "treasure" in question was actually being smuggled out by
the queen to her brother the Austrian emperor-or that maybe the
treasure was the queen herself.24 Likewise Sainte-Menehould, farther west, saw the sudden and unannounced appearance of two successive cavalry contingents. The second, a group of dragoons under
the command of Andoins, dismounted at midmorning on June 21 in
the town's large central square and waited there throughout the day while their nervous commander paced the street and periodically
rode out of town to watch the horizon. Whenever the officers were
away, townspeople attempted to communicate with the foreigntongued cavalrymen, plying them with drink and asking them their
"real" purpose in the region. Many of the soldiers, mystified themselves by their strange assignment, began to wonder whether their
officers could be trusted. By the end of the afternoon, suspicions
had reached such a level that elements of the national guard began
arming and preparing for an unidentified calamity."

In the meantime, even more disastrous events were unrolling at
the critical forward position of Somme-Vesle, where the duke de
Choiseul's hussars were waiting not in a town but in the open
countryside. Here, as in so many rural regions of France after the
Revolution began, the peasants had been recalcitrant about paying
their seigneurial dues. When the cavalrymen arrived, splendid and
frightening in their high plumed helmets, panic spread through the
community that the men had come to seize the peasants' money or
crops, and people arrived from every direction, pitchforks and sickles in hand, shouting and threatening the horsemen. In the midafternoon, having heard stories of the unrest from passing travelers,
a delegation of national guardsmen came out from Chalons to
investigate. Choiseul and Goguelat attempted to reason with everyone, telling them the story of the strongbox. Although the guardsmen were apparently pacified and returned home, the peasants remained unconvinced and continued to menace the detachment.26

At the same time, Choiseul grew increasingly uneasy about the
long-overdue arrival of the king. Goguelat had carefully timed the
trip, and by his calculations the royal party should have arrived by
two o'clock. In a letter to Bouille, Fersen had even promised that
the king would be in Somme-Vesle by half past two: "you can count
on it." Finally, late in the afternoon the young duke made a series of
poorly conceived decisions heavy with consequences for the whole
plan of escape. Unnerved by the presence of the crowds, worried
that the king had somehow failed to leave Paris, fearful that even if
the king did arrive, the near-riot conditions at the relay post might jeopardize his passage, Choiseul resolved to retreat, and to retreat
not just a short way down the road, but all the way to Bouille's
headquarters in Stenay, some fifty miles distant. Perhaps even more
fateful, he then sent word to the other contingents of cavalry waiting behind him: "It would appear that the treasure is not arriving
today. I am leaving to rejoin General Bouille. You will receive new
orders tomorrow." Finally, to deliver the message he made the exceptionally strange choice of Monsieur Leonard, the queen's hair-
dresser.27

For the next eight hours the duke and his small force would
disappear to the northeast, traveling across country rather than
following the main road, raising pandemonium as they galloped
unannounced through village after village, before storming into
the Argonne Forest and losing their way. In contrast, Monsieur
Leonard in his small carriage, rapidly taking to his role as military
courier, performed his task perfectly. Driving in succession through
Sainte-Menehould, Clermont, and Varennes, he passed along the
message implying that the king was not coming. In the first two
towns, Andoins and Damas welcomed an excuse to have their men
unsaddle and retire to their lodgings, to some extent reducing the
fears of the townspeople. Both nevertheless remained at their posts
with a few officers and soldiers, waiting to see what would happen.
In Varennes both commander and cavalry retired for the night.
Only Raigecourt and the younger Bouille stood in readiness at their
hotel window, waiting to see if the relay horses, below in the stables, might still be necessary.28

As THE ROYAL CARAVAN drove down the long main street of
Sainte-Menehould and into the central square, the anxieties aroused
by the failure to find Choiseul were scarcely allayed. They did now
see cavalry, but the men seemed to be relaxing, dismounted and disarmed, some of them drinking in an inn. Even more worrisome
were the groups of national guardsmen, many carrying muskets,
milling about on the opposite side of the Place Royale in front of
the elegant brick and limestone town hall. The travelers must have felt as if they were stumbling by chance into a drama unrolling on
the stage of the town square, where the entire citizenry seemed to
be gathered. They must also have been aware that everyone had
turned to watch them, staring in particular at the bodyguards, who
looked for all the world like the men of the prince de Conde. A
few buildings farther along, on a street that angled off to the right,
the royal party found the relay post where Valory and the stablehands were already preparing the horses. The change of teams went
smoothly and rapidly. While they were waiting, the queen, anxious
to learn what was happening, called Andoins over to the berline.
The officer tried to look casual as he walked up, but when he saw
the king he instinctively saluted. He then whispered, "Plans have
not worked out; I must leave for fear of raising suspicion." And
he quickly walked away. "These few words," as Tourzel recalled,
"pierced us to the heart."29

The manager of the relay post, Jean-Baptiste Drouet, apparently
arrived on the scene only after his stablehands had almost completed the change of horses. Twenty-eight years old, the younger of
two brothers, he had served seven years in the cavalry before returning to his hometown to work in the family fields and operate
the post owned by his widowed mother. He was ambitious and selfconfident, but he found himself forced into the drudgery of farm
work and manual labor, a considerable comedown from the glamorous career of his youth, and a source of much frustration." Now,
when he saw the berline and looked carefully at the passengers inside, he was stunned to recognize the queen of France, whom he
had once seen while his company was stationed near Versailles. Although he had never before viewed the king, the face of the heavyset man sitting next to her struck him as remarkably like the image
of Louis XVI printed on the new paper money that had lately come
into circulation. After watching the two carriages drive away, he began telling everyone around him that the king had just passed. At
first, like the people in Chaintrix and in Chalons, no one knew what
to do or what to think. But only a few minutes later Andoins had
the bugle sounded, calling his dragoons to remount and prepare to leave, and suddenly the scales fell from their eyes. It had all been a
plot. The cavalry had come not to escort a strongbox, but to accompany the king, who either was fleeing or had been abducted.31

[To view this image, refer to
the print version of this title.]

Drouet Recognises the King in Sainte-Menehould. The royal family waits while
Louis dines on pigs' feet, the culinary specialty of Sainte-Menehould, in an
inn called An Fuiard (The Runaway). Drouet identifies the monarch by comparing him with the portrait on a bill of paper money. In reality, the king
never left the carriage while in Sainte-Menehould.

Thereafter the chronology of events in Sainte-Menehould is
somewhat unclear. Almost immediately the local national guard,
armed with muskets, drums beating, organized themselves and lined
up across the street to block the passage of the cavalry. At the same
time, other citizens began talking to the horsemen, encouraging
them to disobey their officers. While Andoins tried to talk with the
townspeople, one of his mounted officers fired a pistol into the air
and made a run for it, breaking through the guardsmen and riding
out of town, dodging the musket shots that were fired his way. With
the church bells now ringing and riot conditions breaking out,
Andoins and the remaining officers were disarmed and locked in the
town jail for their own safety. Drouet was called into the municipal
council, meeting in emergency session in their hall, directly adjoining the riot site. And after he had told his story, the town fathers, on
their own initiative, made an extraordinary decision. If the king was
leaving Paris, it could only mean that he was heading for the frontier, perhaps to return with a foreign army, to invade the country
and end the Revolution. Other towns in the direction of the frontier
must be warned and the king stopped. They asked Drouet himself,
known as one of the best riders in town, to go after him. The postmaster quickly recruited his friend jean Guillaume, another excavalryman, and the two set off in pursuit of the royal family, by
now a good hour and a half ahead of them. As they approached the
town of Clermont, Drouet and Guillaume encountered the postmaster's driver bringing back the team, and he told them that the
berline and the cabriolet had left the main road and turned north.
The two horsemen then headed across country in the direction of
Varennes.32

About an hour earlier, around half past nine, after a slow climb
over the hills of the Argonne, the royal caravan had pulled into
the relay stop at Clermont. It was almost dark, and the post was on
the near edge of town, so few people saw the travelers arrive, and the change of horses went quickly. The count Damas, who had remained waiting nearby, cautiously spoke to the royal family and at
greater length with Valory, warning them of the wide unrest in
Clermont over the presence of troops, and promising to follow as
soon as the two carriages had advanced some distance ahead-thus
following Bouille's orders to the letter. But the caravan was seen
clearly as it passed through the middle of town and turned toward
Varennes. The events that followed in Clermont were strangely
similar to those in Sainte-Menehould. No one had recognized the
royal couple, but everyone saw the prince de Conde's yellow livery
and concluded there must be some connection with the soldiers who
had been inexplicably billeted in their town the last two days. About
an hour later, as national guardsmen put on their uniforms and assembled, the officer who had escaped Sainte-Menehould arrived and
informed Damas that the king's party had been recognized and that
a full-scale riot had broken out as soon as they had left. When the
commander tried to rally his men, most of them, now drinking
heavily and won over by the citizenry, refused to obey. He escaped
with only a handful of cavalry, riding at full speed in an attempt to
warn the king.33

In the meantime the occupants of the berline were advancing
steadily down the long valley of the Aire, exhausted by their trek
and dozing in the darkness "despite their tension and anxiety."34
Their tension would have been still greater if they had been aware
of the waves of panic and insurrection rapidly approaching from
the rear. There was the smaller local surge generated by the events
in Sainte-Menehould and Clermont and by the duke de Choiseul's
wild ride through the villages of the Argonne. Not far behind was
an even greater wave of emotion spreading over the whole kingdom, as official couriers and private citizens rushed down the roads
of France announcing the news of the king's disappearance.

The arrival in Varennes about eleven brought yet another jolt of
uncertainty and disappointment. Bouille and Choiseul had promised
to position a new team of horses in the trees near the road just before the first houses. But although Valory and Moustier searched ev erywhere, riding into the sleeping settlement as far as the river, they
found no sign of the expected relay team. They even knocked on a
few doors close to the entrance of the town, yet they could obtain
no assistance. The travelers then asked the drivers to skip the relay
and continue on to Dun, but the men from Clermont had strict instructions from their post-master to go no farther than Varennes unless the horses were first fed and rested. A half-hour, perhaps forty
minutes passed as they searched the town and argued with the drivers. And while they were still parked by the road, Drouet and
Guillaume trotted past and into town 35