from the king, informing him that they had put off their journey for
four and twenty hours, in consequence of the necessity of concealing
the preparations for their departure from a femme de chambre of the
queen, a fanatical democrat, who was fully capable of betraying them,
and whose duties only terminated on the 19th. His majesty added that the
Marquis d'Agoult would not accompany him, because Madame de Tourzel, the
governess of the royal children, had claimed the privileges of her post,
and wished to accompany them.

This delay rendered necessary counter-orders of the most fatal nature;
all the arrangements as to time and place were thus thrown out. The
detachments were forced to remain at places they were only to have
marched through, and the relays stationed on the road might be
withdrawn. However, the Marquis de Bouillé remedied all these evils as
far as was in his power; sent modified orders to the commanders of the
detachments, and advanced in person the 20th to Stenay, which was
garrisoned by the Royal Allemand regiment, on whose fidelity he could
rely. The 21st he assembled the generals under his orders, informed them
that the king would pass in the course of the night by Stenay, and would
be at Montmédy the next evening; he ordered General Klinglin to prepare
under the guns of the fortress a camp of twelve battalions and
twenty-four squadrons; the king was to reside in a chateau behind the
camp: this chateau would thus serve as head quarters, and the king's
position would be at once more secure and more dignified surrounded by
his army. The generals did not hesitate for an instant. M. de Bouillé
left General de Hoffelizze at Stenay with the Royal Allemand regiment,
with orders to saddle the horses at night fall, to mount at daybreak and
to send at ten o'clock at night a detachment of fifty troopers between
Stenay and Dun, to await the king and escort him to Stenay.