weak they would be unable to afford him protection: he also entreated
him not to travel in a berlin made expressly for him, and conspicuous by
its form, but to make use of two English carriages, then much in vogue,
and better fitted for such a purpose; he, moreover, dwelt on the
necessity of taking with him some man of firmness and energy to advise
and assist him in the unforeseen accidents that might happen on his
journey; he mentioned as the fittest person the Marquis d'Agoult, major
in the French guards; and he lastly besought the king to request the
Emperor to make a threatening movement of the Austrian troops on the
frontier near Montmédy, in order that the disquietude and alarm of the
population might serve as a pretext to justify the movements of the
different detachments and the presence of the different corps of cavalry
in the vicinity of the town.

The king agreed to this, and also to take with him the Marquis d'Agoult;
to the rest he positively refused to accede. A few days prior to his
departure he sent a million in assignats (40,000_l._) to M. de Bouillé,
to furnish the rations and forage, as well as to pay the faithful troops
who were destined to favour his flight. These arrangements made, the
Marquis de Bouillé despatched a trusty officer of his staff, M. de
Guoguelas, with instructions to make a minute and accurate survey of the
road and country between Châlons and Montmédy, and to deliver an exact
report to the king. This officer saw the king, and brought back his
orders to M. de Bouillé.

In the meantime M. de Bouillé held himself in readiness to execute all
that had been agreed upon; he had sent to a distance the disaffected
troops, and concentrated the twelve foreign battalions on which he could
rely. A train of sixteen pieces of artillery was sent towards Montmédy.
The regiment of _Royal Allemand_ arrived at Stenay, a squadron of