pointed out to him.  He had been told (which was the case) that there existed a secret communication from the queen’s cabinet to the apartment of the former captain of the guard; and that the king, who it is well known was an expert locksmith, had made false keys that opened all the doors; at last these reports (that went the round of all the clubs) transformed every patriot on that night into the king’s gaoler.  We read with surprise in the journal of Camille Desmoulins of the 20th of June, 1791:—­“The evening passed most tranquilly at Paris; I returned at eleven o’clock from the Jacobins’ Club with Danton and several other patriots; we only met a single patrole all the way.  Paris appeared to me that night so deserted, that I could not help remarking it.  One of us, Freron, who had in his pocket a letter warning him that the king would escape that night, wished to observe the chateau; he saw M. de La Fayette enter it at eleven.”

A little further on Camille Desmoulins relates the restless fears of the people on the fatal night.  “The night,” says he “on which the family of the Capets escaped, Busebi, a perruke-maker in the Rue de Bourbon, called on Hucher, a baker and Sapeur in the Bataillon of the Theatins, to communicate his fears on what he had just learnt relative to the king’s projected flight.  They instantly aroused their neighbours, to the number of thirty, and went to La Fayette to inform him of the fact, and to summon him to take instant measures to prevent it.  M. de La Fayette laughed, and advised them to go home.  In order to avoid being stopped by the patrols, they asked for the pass-word, which he gave them.  Armed with this they hastened to the Tuileries, where nothing was visible except several hackney coachman drinking round one of the small shops near the wicket gate of the Carrousel.  They inspected all the courts until they came to the door of the Manege without perceiving anything suspicious, but at their return they were surprised to find that every hackney coach had disappeared, which made them conjecture that these coaches had been used by some of the attendants of this unworthy (indigne) family.”

It is too evident from the state of agitation of the public mind and the severity of the king’s captivity, how difficult it must have been.  However, either owing to the connivance of some of the national guards who had on that day demanded the custody of the interior posts, and who winking at this infraction of the orders,—­to the skilful management of the Count de Fersen,—­or that providence afforded a last ray of hope and safety to those whom she was so soon about to overwhelm with misfortunes, all the watchfulness of the guardians was in vain, and the Revolution suffered its prey for some time to escape.

IX.