aide-de-camp to M. de La Fayette, arrived at that moment. He had been
chosen, after the 6th of October, 1789, by the commander of the Parisian
guard to be in constant attendance about the Queen. She reproached him
bitterly with the object of his mission. "If you wish to make your name
remarkable, monsieur," said the Queen to him, "you have chosen strange and
odious means, which will produce the most fatal consequences." This
officer wished to hasten their departure. The Queen, still cherishing the
hope of seeing M. de Bouille arrive with a sufficient force to extricate
the King from his critical situation, prolonged her stay at Varennes by
every means in her power.

The Dauphin's first woman pretended to be taken ill with a violent colic,
and threw herself upon a bed, in the hope of aiding the designs of her
superiors; she went and implored for assistance. The Queen understood her
perfectly well, and refused to leave one who had devoted herself to follow
them in such a state of suffering. But no delay in departing was allowed.
The three Body Guards (Valory, Du Moustier, and Malden) were gagged and
fastened upon the seat of the carriage. A horde of National Guards,
animated with fury and the barbarous joy with which their fatal triumph
inspired them, surrounded the carriage of the royal family.

The three commissioners sent by the Assembly to meet the King, MM. de
Latour-Maubourg, Barnave, and Potion, joined them in the environs of
Epernay. The two last mentioned got into the King's carriage. The Queen
astonished me by the favourable opinion she had formed of Barnave. When I
quitted Paris a great many persons spoke of him only with horror. She told
me he was much altered, that he was full of talent and noble feeling. "A
feeling of pride which I cannot much blame in a young man belonging to the
Tiers Etat," she said, "made him applaud everything which smoothed the
road to rank and fame for that class in which he was born. And if we get