king, the queen, and madame Elizabeth exclaimed,
with one voice, "We are saved." Chalons once passed, the king's security
no longer depended on chance, but on prudence and force. The first relay
was at Pont Sommeville. It will be remembered, that in obedience to the
orders of M. de Bouille, M. de Choiseul and M. de Guoguelas, at the head
of a detachment of fifty hussars, were to meet the king and follow in
his rear, and besides, as soon as the king's carriage appeared, to send
off an hussar to warn the troops at Sainte Menehould and at Clermont of
the vicinity of the royal family. The king felt thus certain of meeting
faithful and armed friends; but he found no one, M. de Choiseul, M. de
Guoguelas, and the fifty hussars had left half an hour before. The
populace seemed disturbed and restless; they looked suspiciously at the
travellers, and whispered from time to time in a low voice with each
other. However, no one ventured to oppose their departure, and the king
arrived at half past seven at Sainte Menehould; at this season of the
year, it was still broad daylight; and alarmed at having passed two of
the relays without meeting the friends he expected, the king by a
natural impulse put his head out of the window, in order to seek amidst
the crowd for some friend, some officer posted there to explain to him
the reason of the absence of the detachments: that action caused his
ruin. The son of the post-master, Drouet, recognised the king, whom he
had never seen, by his likeness to the effigy on the coins in
circulation.

Nevertheless as the horses were harnessed, and the town occupied by a
troop of dragoons, who could force a passage, the young man did not
venture to attempt to detain the carriages at this spot.

XI.

The officer commanding the detachment of dragoons in the town, was also,
under pretence of walking on the Grand Place, on the watch for the royal
carriages, which he recognised instantly, by the description of them
with which he was furnished. He ordered his soldiers to mount and follow
the king; but the national guards of Sainte Menehould, amongst whom the
rumour of the likeness between the travellers and the royal family had
been rapidly circulated, surrounded the barracks, closed the stables,
and opposed by force the departure of the soldiers. During this rapid
and instinctive movement of the people, the post-master's son saddled
his best horse, and galloped as fast as possible to Varennes, in order
to