, the king and queen, guarded by the municipal guards of
Varennes, discussed, in a low voice, the danger of their position, their
pious sister, Madame Elizabeth, prayed by their side; her kingdom was,
indeed, "in heaven." Nothing had induced her to remain at the court,
from which she was estranged, alike by her piety and her renouncement of
all worldly pleasure, but her affection for her brother, and she had
shared only the sorrows and sufferings of the throne.

The prisoners were far from despairing yet; they had no doubt that M. de
Bouille, warned by one of the officers whom he had stationed on the
road, would march all night to their assistance; and they attributed his
delay to the necessity of collecting a sufficient force to overpower
the numerous troops of national guards whom the sound of the tocsin had
summoned to Varennes. But at each instant they expected to see him
appear, and the least movement of the populace, the slightest clash of
arms in the streets, seemed to announce his arrival; the courier
despatched to Paris by the authorities of Varennes to receive the orders
of the Assembly, only left at three o'clock in the morning. He could not
reach Paris in less than twenty hours, and would require as much more
for his return; and the Assembly would require, at least three or four
hours more to deliberate; thus M. de Bouille must have forty-eight
hours' start of any orders from Paris.

Moreover, in what state would Paris be? what would have happened there
at the unexpected announcement of the king's departure? Had not terror
or repentance taken possession of every mind; would not anarchy have
destroyed the feeble barriers that an anarchical assembly might have
opposed to it? Would not the cry of treason have been the first signal
of alarm? La Fayette have been torn to pieces as a traitor, and the
national guard disbanded? Would not the well-intentioned and loyal
citizens have again obtained the mastery over the factious and turbulent
in the confusion and terror that would prevail? Who would give orders?
who would execute them?

The nation trembling, and in disorder, would fall perhaps at the feet of
its king. Such were the chimaeras, the last fond hopes of this
unfortunate family, and on which they sustained their courage, during
this fatal night, in the small and suffocating room into which they were
all crowded.

The king had been allowed to communicate with several officers: M. de
Guoguelas, M. de Damas