of the
oppressed Court; and at this time some communications passed between the
Queen and him. The question was about an office to be conferred upon him.
This transpired, and it must have been about this period that the Assembly
decreed that no deputy could hold an office as a minister of the King
until the expiration of two years after the cessation of his legislative
functions. I know that the Queen was much hurt at this decision, and
considered that the Court had lost a promising opening.

The palace of the Tuileries was a very disagreeable residence during the
summer, which made the Queen wish to go to St. Cloud. The removal was
decided on without any opposition; the National Guard of Paris followed
the Court thither. At this period new opportunities of escape were
presented; nothing would have been more easy than to execute them. The
King had obtained leave (!) to go out without guards, and to be
accompanied only by an aide-de-camp of M. de La Fayette. The Queen also
had one on duty with her, and so had the Dauphin. The King and Queen
often went out at four in the afternoon, and did not return until eight or
nine.

I will relate one of the plans of emigration which the Queen communicated
to me, the success of which seemed infallible. The royal family were to
meet in a wood four leagues from St. Cloud; some persons who could be
fully relied on were to accompany the King, who was always followed by his
equerries and pages; the Queen was to join him with her daughter and
Madame Elisabeth. These Princesses, as well as the Queen, had equerries
and pages, of whose fidelity no doubt could be entertained. The Dauphin
likewise was to be at the place of rendezvous with Madame de Tourzel; a
large berlin and a chaise for the attendants were sufficient for the whole
family; the aides-de-camp were to have been gained over or mastered. The
King was to leave a letter for the President of the National Assembly on
his bureau at St. Cloud. The people in the service of the King and Queen
would have waited until nine in the evening without anxiety, because the
family sometimes did not return until that hour. The letter could not be
forwarded to Paris until ten o'clock at the earliest. The Assembly would
not then be sitting; the President must have been sought for at his own
house or elsewhere; it would have been midnight before the Assembly could
have been summoned and couriers sent off to have the royal family stopped;
b