Romeuf, whom he directed to follow the road to Valenciennes, was
stopped by the mob, and brought before the Assembly. There he received
a new commission, with authority to make the king a prisoner. As he
rode out, after so much delay, he learned that the fugitives had been
seen on the road to Meaux, and that they had twelve hours' start.

There is much in these transactions that is strangely suspicious.
Lafayette did not make up his mind that there was anything to be done
until others pressed him. He sent off all his men by the wrong roads,
while Baillon, the emissary of the Commune, struck the track at once.
He told Romeuf that it was too late, so that his heavy day's ride was
only a formality. Romeuf, who was the son of one of his tenants, got
into many difficulties, and did not give his horse the spur until the
news was four hours old. At Varennes he avowed that he had never meant
to overtake them, and the king's officers believed him. Gouvion,
second in command of the guard, knew by which door the royal party
meant to leave, and he assured the Assembly that he had kept watch
over it, with several officers, all night. Lewis had even authorised
Mme. de Tourzel to bring Gouvion with her, if she met him on her way
to the carriage. Burke afterwards accused Lafayette of having allowed
the departure, that he might profit by the arrest. Less impassioned
critics have doubted whether the companion of Washington was preparing
a regency, or deemed that the surest road to a republic is by a vacant
throne.

The coach that was waiting beyond the gates had been ordered for a
Russian lady, Madame de Korff, who was Fersen's fervent accomplice.
She supplied not only the carriage, but L12,000 in money, and a
passport. As she required another for her own family, the Russian
minister applied to Bailly. The mayor refused, and he was obliged to
ask Montmorin, pretending that the passport he had just given had been
burnt by mistake. The numbers and description tallied, but the
destination was Frankfort. As the travellers quitted the Frankfort
road at Clermont, the last stage before Varennes, this was a
transparent blunder. Half an hour had been lost, but the first stage,
Bondy, was reached at half-past one. Here Fersen, who had sat by his
coachman, flourishing the whip, got down, and the family he had
striven so hard to save passed out of his protection. He wished to
take them all the way, and had asked Gustavus for leave to travel in
the