Mesdames, the King's aunts, set out from Bellevue in the beginning of the
year 1791. Alexandre Berthier, afterwards Prince de Neufchatel, then a
colonel on the staff of the army, and commandant of the National Guard of
Versailles, facilitated the departure of Mesdames. The Jacobins of that
town procured his dismissal, and he ran the greatest risk, on account of
having rendered this service to these Princesses.

I went to take leave of Madame Victoire. I little thought that I was then
seeing her for the last time. She received me alone in her closet, and
assured

[General Berthier justified the monarch's confidence by a firm and prudent
line of conduct which entitled him to the highest military honours, and to
the esteem of the great warrior whose fortune, dangers, and glory he
afterwards shared. This officer, full of honour, and gifted with the
highest courage, was shut into the courtyard of Bellevue by his own troop,
and ran great risk of being murdered. It was not until the 14th of March
that he succeeded in executing his instructions ("Memoirs of Mesdames," by
Montigny, vol. i.)]

me that she hoped, as well as wished, soon to return to France; that the
French would be much to be pitied if the excesses of the Revolution should
arrive at such a pitch as to force her to prolong her absence. I knew from
the Queen that the departure of Mesdames was deemed necessary, in order to
leave the King free to act when he should be compelled to go away with his
family. It being impossible that the constitution of the clergy should be
otherwise than in direct opposition to the religious principles of
Mesdames, they thought their journey to Rome would be attributed to piety
alone. It was, however, difficult to deceive an Assembly which weighed