Stockholm above all that
she turned her eyes. Gustavus ordered Fersen to go secretly to Paris,
and on December 22, 1791, he sent him a memoir and certain letters,
commissioning him to deliver them to Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette.
He recommended, as forcibly as he could, a new attempt at flight, but
with precautions suggested by the lesson of Varennes. He thought the
members of the royal {18} family should depart separately and in
disguise, and that, once outside of his kingdom, Louis XVI. should call
for the intervention of a congress. The following passage occurs in
the letter of the Swedish King to Marie Antoinette: "I beg Your Majesty
to consider seriously that violent disorders can only be cured by
violent remedies, and that if moderation is a virtue in the course of
ordinary life, it often becomes a vice when there is question of public
matters. The King of France can re-establish his dominion only by
resuming his former rights; every other remedy is illusory; anything
except this would merely open the way to endless discussions which
would augment the confusion instead of ending it. The King's rights
were torn from him by the sword; it is by the sword that they must be
reconquered. But I refrain; I should remember that I am addressing a
princess who, in the most terrible moments of her life, has shown the
most intrepid courage."

Fersen obtained permission from Louis XVI. to accomplish the mission
confided to him by Gustavus III. He left Stockholm under an assumed
name and with the passport of a Swedish courier, and reached Paris
without accident, February 13, 1792. He was so adroit and prudent that
no one suspected his presence. On the very evening of his arrival he
wrote in his journal: "Went to the Queen by my usual road; very few
National Guards; did not see the King." Fersen, therefore, only
reappeared at the Tuileries in the darkness, like a fugitive or {19} an
outlaw. He found the Queen pale with grief and with hair whitened by
sorrow and emotion. It was a solemn moment. The storm was raging
within France and beyond it. Terrible omens, snares, and dangers lay
on every side. One might have said that the Tuileries were about to be
swallowed up in a gulf of fire and blood.

The next day Fersen saw the King. He wrote in his journal: "Tuesday,
14. Saw the King at six in the evening. He will not go and can not,
on account of the extreme vigilance. In fact, he scruples at it,
having so ofte