am about to repeat, and of which I have seen various details, of tolerable
exactness, in papers of the time.

The King entrusted Count Fersen with all the preparations for departure.
The carriage was ordered by him; the passport, in the name of Madame de
Korf, was procured through his connection with that lady, who was a
foreigner. And lastly, he himself drove the royal family, as their
coachman, as far as Bondy, where the travellers got into their berlin.
Madame Brunier and Madame Neuville, the first women of Madame and the
Dauphin, there joined the principal carriage. They were in a cabriolet.
Monsieur and Madame set out from the Luxembourg and took another road.
They as well as the King were recognised by the master of the last post in
France, but this man, devoting himself to the fortunes of the Prince, left
the French territory, and drove them himself as postilion. Madame
Thibaut, the Queen's first woman, reached Brussels without the slightest
difficulty. Madame Cardon, from Arras, met with no hindrance; and
Leonard, the Queen's hairdresser, passed through Varennes a few hours
before the royal family. Fate had reserved all its obstacles for the
unfortunate monarch.

Nothing worthy of notice occurred in the beginning of the journey. The
travellers were detained a short time, about twelve leagues from Paris, by
some repairs which the carriage required. The King chose to walk up one
of the hills, and these two circumstances caused a delay of three hours,
precisely at the time when it was intended that the berlin should have
been met, just before reaching Varennes, by the detachment commanded by M.
de Goguelat. This detachment was punctually stationed upon the spot fixed
on, with orders to wait there for the arrival of certain treasure, which
it was to escort; but the peasantry of the neighbourhood, alarmed at the
sight of this body of troops, came armed with staves, and asked several