raveller was; the postmaster of Ste Menehould had recognised
the King, had ridden on ahead, had roused the national guard of
Varennes--and now the game was up.

{118} After a slight skirmish between a detachment of Bouille's cavalry
and the national guard of Varennes, Louis was started back for Paris,
surrounded by armed contingents from all the near-by villages. The
whole course of the Revolution had for an instant wavered, hesitating
whether to turn this way or that. Now it had turned in a direction
that could not be mistaken. Louis himself speaking to one of the
officials of Varennes said to him: "If we return to Paris, we shall
die."

It was early on the morning of the 21st of June that Paris learnt that
the King had left the capital; intense excitement resulted. No doubt
could be felt as to the significance of the event; the King himself had
taken care that there should be none by leaving behind a lengthy
proclamation of which the upshot was that all the decrees he had signed
were null and void because of compulsion. The people answered this in
the way that might be expected; every emblem of royalty was torn down
through the city.

The assembly was in a state of the greatest uncertainty. It had two
dangers to face, one from the King, immediate, another from the people,
less immediate yet calling for much prudence. In this moment of crisis
and doubt, {119} numerous solutions of the political problem were put
forward, of which several demand notice.

Marat, in _l'Ami du peuple_, declared that a military dictator was the
only remedy for the situation; a curiously logical perception of what
was to be the outcome of the Revolution. This opinion did not obtain
any success.

The duc d'Orleans proposed another solution. This personage was the
head of the branch of the French Bourbons that stood next to that
holding the throne. He had long been on bad terms with the Court and
had assiduously cultivated popularity among the Parisians. During the
winter of 1788-89 he had spent much money and effort in charity and the
relief of distress, and had his reward on the assembly of the
States-General at which, while the Queen was received in stony silence,
he had met with an ovation. He did his best to create an Orleans
party, to push for the throne, and devoted to the purpose the large
sums of money which his great fortune placed at his disposal. At every
crisis in the Revolution small groups, mostly subsidized, a