. From the moment that his royal master was brought before the
Convention he had despaired of his life, and had, therefore, bent all his
thoughts on the preservation of the queen. M. Turgy, the second, was in a
humbler rank of life. He was, as we have seen, one of the officers of the
kitchen; but in the household of a king of France even the cooks had
pretensions to gentle blood. A third was a man named Toulan, who had
originally been a music-seller in Paris, but had subsequently obtained
employment under the Municipal Council, and was now a commissioner, with
duties which brought him into constant contact with the imprisoned queen.
Either he had never in his heart been her enemy, or he had been converted
by the dignified fortitude with which she bore her miseries, and by the
irresistible fascination which even in prison she still exercised over all
whose hearts had not been hardened by fanatical wickedness against every
manly or honest feeling; he won the queen's confidence by the most welcome
service, which has been already mentioned, of conveying to her her
husband's seal and ring. She gave him a letter to recommend him to the
confidence of Jarjayes; and their combined ingenuity devised a plan for
the escape of the whole family. It was in their favor that a man, who came
daily to look to the lamps, usually brought with him his two sons, who
nearly matched the size of the royal children. And Jarjayes and Toulan,
aided by another of the municipal commissioners, named Lepitre, who had
also learned to abhor the indignities practiced on fallen royalty, had
prepared full suits of male attire for the queen and princess, with red
scarfs and sashes as were worn by the different commissioners, of whom
there were too many for all of them to be known to the sentinels; and also
clothes for the two children, ill-fitting and shabby, to resemble the
dress of the lamp-lighter's boys. Passports, too, by the aid of Lepitre,
whose duties lay in the department which issued them, were provided for
the whole family; and after careful discussion of the arrangements to be
adopted when once the prisoners were clear of the Temple, it was settled
that they should take the road to Normandy in three cabriolets, which
would be less likely to attract notice than any larger and less ordinary
carriage.

The end of February or the beginning of March was fixed for the attempt;
but before that time the Government and the people had become greatly
disquie