ned of giving the least order which might
cause an effusion of blood! "Would it be a brisk action?" said the King.
"It is impossible that it should be otherwise, Sire," replied the
aide-decamp. Louis XVI. was unwilling to expose his family. They
therefore went to the house of a grocer, Mayor of Varennes. The King
began to speak, and gave a summary of his intentions in departing,
analogous to the declaration he had made at Paris. He spoke with warmth
and affability, and endeavoured to demonstrate to the people around him
that he had only put himself, by the step he had taken, into a fit
situation to treat with the Assembly, and to sanction with freedom the
constitution which he would maintain, though many of its articles were
incompatible with the dignity of the throne, and the force by which it was
necessary that the sovereign should be surrounded. Nothing could be more
affecting, added the Queen, than this moment, in which the King felt bound
to communicate to the very humblest class of his subjects his principles,
his wishes for the happiness of his people, and the motives which had
determined him to depart.

Whilst the King was speaking to this mayor, whose name was Sauce, the
Queen, seated at the farther end of the shop, among parcels of soap and
candles, endeavoured to make Madame Sauce understand that if she would
prevail upon her husband to make use of his municipal authority to cover
the flight of the King and his family, she would have the glory of having
contributed to restore tranquillity to France. This woman was moved; she
could not, without streaming eyes, see herself thus solicited by her
Queen; but she could not be got to say anything more than, "Bon Dieu,
Madame, it would be the destruction of M. Sauce; I love my King, but I
love my husband too, you must know, and he would be answerable, you see."
Whilst this strange scene was passing in the shop, the people, hearing
that the King was arrested, kept pouring in from all parts. M. de
Goguelat, making a last effort, demanded of the dragoons whether they
would protect the departure of the King; they replied only by murmurs,
dropping the points of their swords. Some person unknown fired a pistol
at M. de Goguelat; he was slightly wounded by the ball. M. Romeuf,
aide-de-camp to M. de La Fayette, arrived at that moment. He had been
chosen, after the 6th of October, 1789, by the commander of the Parisian
guard to be in constant attendance about the Que