s, combing cloths, etc. My sister had a complete set of
clothes made for Madame, by the measure of her eldest daughter, and I
ordered clothes for the Dauphin from those of my son. I filled a trunk
with these things, and addressed them, by the Queen's orders, to one of
her women, my aunt, Madame Cardon,--a widow living at Arras, by virtue of
an unlimited leave of absence,--in order that she might be ready to start
for Brussels, or any other place, as soon as she should be directed to do
so. This lady had landed property in Austrian Flanders, and could at any
time quit Arras unobserved.

The Queen was to take only her first woman in attendance with her from
Paris. She apprised me that if I should not be on duty at the moment of
departure, she would make arrangements for my joining her. She determined
also to take her travelling dressing-case. She consulted me on her idea
of sending it off, under pretence of making a present of it to the
Archduchess Christina, Gouvernante of the Netherlands. I ventured to
oppose this plan strongly, and observed that, amidst so many people who
watched her slightest actions, there would be found a sufficient number
sharp-sighted enough to discover that it was only a pretext for sending
away the property in question before her own departure; she persisted in
her intention, and all I could arrange was that the dressing-case should
not be removed from her apartment, and that M. de charge d'afaires from
the Court of Vienna during the absence of the Comte de Mercy, should come
and ask her, at her toilet, before all her people, to order one exactly
like her own for Madame the Gouvernante of the Netherlands. The Queen,
therefore, commanded me before the charge d'affaires to order the article
in question. This occasioned only an expense of five hundred louis, and
appeared calculated to lull suspicion completely.

About the middle of May, 1791, a month after the Queen had ordered me to
bespeak the dressing-case, she asked me whether it would soon be finished.
I sent for the ivory-turner who had it in hand. He could not complete it
for six weeks. I informed the Queen of this, and she told me she should
not be able to wait for it, as she was to set out in the course of June.
She added that, as she had ordered her sister's dressing-case in the
presence of all her attendants, she had taken a sufficient precaution,
especially by saying that her sister was out of patience at not receiving
it, an