all box, which
she might carry off in her own carriage. With my assistance she burnt a
large quantity of papers; for Versailles was then threatened with an early
visit of armed men from Paris.

The Queen, on the morning of the 16th, before attending another committee
at the King's, having got her jewels ready, and looked over all her
papers, gave me one folded up but not sealed, and desired me not to read
it until she should give me an order to do so from the King's room, and
that then I was to execute its contents; but she returned herself about
ten in the morning; the affair was decided; the army was to go away
without the King; all those who were in imminent danger were to go at the
same time. "The King will go to the Hotel de Ville to-morrow," said the
Queen to me; "he did not choose this course for himself; there were long
debates on the question; at last the King put an end to them by rising and
saying, 'Well, gentlemen, we must decide; am I to go or to stay? I am
ready to do either.' The majority were for the King staying; time will
show whether the right choice has been made." I returned the Queen the
paper she had given me, which was now useless; she read it to me; it
contained her orders for the departure; I was to go with her, as well on
account of my office about her person as to serve as a teacher to Madame.
The Queen tore the paper, and said, with tears in her eyes, "When I wrote
this I thought it would be useful, but fate has ordered otherwise, to the
misfortune of us all, as I much fear."

After the departure of the troops the new administration received thanks;
M. Necker was recalled. The artillery soldiers were undoubtedly
corrupted. "Wherefore all these guns?" exclaimed the crowds of women who
filled the streets. "Will you kill your mothers, your wives, your
children?"--"Don't be afraid," answered the soldiers; "these guns shall
rather be levelled against the tyrant's palace than against you!"

The Comte d'Artois, the Prince de Conde, and their children set off at the
same time with the troops. The Duc and Duchesse de Polignac, their
daughter, the Duchesse de Guiche, the Comtesse Diane de Polignac, sister
of the Duke, and the Abbe de Baliviere, also emigrated on the same night.
Nothing could be more affecting than the parting of the Queen and her
friend; extreme misfortune had banished from their minds the recollection
of differences to which political opinions alone had given rise. The
Q