ngthened by the events of that day, except in the eyes of some
who, knowing the suggestion of Mirabeau, suspected a comedy, and
wondered how much the king had paid that a howling mob might call him
a fat pig to his face.

The emperor could no longer refuse aid to his sister without the
reproach of cruelty. He was now requested to move troops near enough
to the frontier to justify Bouille in forming a camp in front of
Montmedy, and collecting supplies sufficient for the nucleus of a
royal army. He was also asked to advance a sum of money for first
expenses. Leopold, who scarcely knew Marie Antoinette, showed extreme
reserve. His hands were not free in the East. He sympathised with much
of the work of the Revolution; and he was not sorry to see France
weakened, even by measures which he disapproved. His language was
discouraging throughout. He would promise nothing until they succeeded
in escaping; and he believed they could not escape. The queen resolved
to discover whether the gross indignity to which she had been
subjected had made some softening impression on her brother; and the
Count de Durfort was sent to seek him in his Italian dominions, with
ample credentials. The agent was not wisely chosen. He found Leopold
at Mantua, conferring with the Count d'Artois, and he fell into the
hands of Calonne. On his return he produced a paper in twenty-one
paragraphs, drawn up by Calonne, with the emperor's replies, showing
that Leopold would invade France in the summer, with 100,000 men, that
the royal family were to await his coming, and that, in effect, he had
accepted the programme of the _emigres_.

The queen was persuaded that she would be murdered if she remained at
Paris while her brother's forces entered France. She believed that the
_emigres_ detested her; that they were prepared to sacrifice her
husband and herself to their own cause; and that if their policy
triumphed, the new masters would be worse than the old. She wrote to
Mercy that it would become an intolerable slavery. She resolved to
incur the utmost risk rather than owe her deliverance to d'Artois and
his followers. Marie Antoinette was right in her estimate of feeling
in the _emigre_ camp. Gustavus III. spoke for many when he said, "The
king and queen, personally, may be in danger; but that is nothing to a
danger that threatens all crowned heads."

After their arrest at Varennes, Fersen was amazed at the indecent joy
of the French in Brussels, of whom m