1804.) ‘Fourney of Louis XVI. from Paris to Varennes. 
which they preffed thefe gentlemen to 
read, giving out, at the fame time, that 
the Auftrians had entered France, and 
were laying the whole country wafte with 
fire and fword. The Deputies, having 
put on the appearance (for it was evi-. 
dent to the perfons in the carriage, where 
two of them were, that it was only an ap- 
pearance,) of reading thefe difpatches, or- 
dered the carriage to halt, and then an- 
nounced to the populace, that forty thou- 
fand Auftrians had invaded the country, 
which was reduced tothe utmof diftrefs : 
that all the towns, even Varennes itfelf, 
was already reduced to athes: that the 
inhabitants, without diftin&tion of age or 
fex, were put to the fword : and that the 
fame calamities would unqueftionably 
take place wherever the Auttrians fhould 
penctrare. 
Thete difcourfes of the Deputies 
heightened tenfold the rage of the multi- 
tude, goaded already almoft to madnefs 
by the conduét of their leaders. 
Yet the mogftrous abfurdity of fuch 
reports, which carried with them their 
own difproval, might have been expected 
rather to open the eyes of thele deluded 
wretches. 
The effeéts they produced, furnifh a 
ftriking proof of the melancholy blind- 
nefs and infatuation of men, when aban- 
doned by Providence to the fury of their 
own paffions. 
Damas, one of the Deputies, had been 
a major-general in the fervice of the un- 
happy Prince, of whom he was now a 
principal tormentor. By his infinuating 
imiles, and ftudied familiarity of difcourie 
and behaviour, to the crowd around the 
carriage, whom he treated with the moft 
marked attention and refpect, leaning on 
the fhoulders of the private national- 
guards, talking in their ear, not as their 
chief, but as their companion ; calling 
them, at every word, friends, comrades, 
&c. &c. By thefe and other arts, this 
Dumas fhewed {uificiently, that the igno- 
rant muliitude aéted only in conformity to 
the infligations of their direétors. 
At the inn where the Royal Family 
were to fleep, after leaving Chalons, the 
Deputies took care to fecure for them- 
felves all the beft apartments. To the 
King was allotted a chamber, where the 
fervants of thofe gentlemen would: have 
confidered themfelves to be badly accom- 
modated: but the virtues of this excel- 
leat Prince ‘made him fupport every in- 
dignity with a compofure and refignation 
which extorted the admiration of even 
his bittereft enemies, 
2 
421 
Far from complaining of his treatment 
in this inn, where the bed was too fhort ~ 
and too narrow for him to firetch his 
wearied limbs on it, his Majefty, with 
his own hands, tied his handkerchief 
about his head, and fat down on a wood- 
en-bottomed chair, which ftood by the 
head of the bed, and defired one of the 
gardes-du-corps to fetch another of the 
fame kind to fupport his feet. 
Perceiving their anguifh at the fight of 
their beloved mafter reduced to fuch mi- 
fery, he, with his ufual condefcenfion, 
faid, ** Ob! never think of me. I am 
well enough here. How many perfins 
would think themfelves happy to be fa 
well provided for! , 
Such, indeed, was the conitant beha. 
viour of the Royal Family on thefe try- 
ing occafions, that the Deputies of the 
Affembly themfelves, men telected, cer- 
tainly with no friendly view, but for the 
purpofe of carrying back their Sovereign 
to his. prifon in the capital, were fo af- 
fected by the genuine dignity of their con- 
du&, that, with all their art, they could 
not conceal their admiration and refpeét. 
The gravity of difcourfe, the corre@- 
nefs of behaviour, which appeared in the 
family, had fuch an effect on thefe Depu- 
ties, that, after the firlt day’s journey, 
they were utterly unable to maintain the 
airs of infolence and..effrontery with 
which they firft prefented themfelves at 
the carriage, < 
When out of the coach, the Deputies 
could not refrain, in fpite of themfelves, » 
from giviog proofs, by their language and 
geftures, of the moft profound re{pect for 
the whol: Family. They feldom ventur- 
ed to look their Mafter in the face; and 
evidently wifhed earnettiy to. withdraw 
from his eye and obfervation. They 
feemed to feel moft pungently the vait 
diftance between themfelves and him. 
The inftances of fenfibility which fell 
in the way of the Royal Family, on this 
journey, were fo rare, that it would be 
unpardonable to fuffer the following to 
pals unnoticed. F 
While the Royal Family were at din- 
ner at Chateau-Thierry, in the chateau 
which ftands over the river Marne, the 
Queen defired to fee the lady of the houte. 
On the porter’s wife appearing, and the 
Queen’s afking whether fhe was the mif- 
trefs of the place, “* Wherever your Ma- 
jelly appears, (faid the poor women, 
touched with the misfortunes of the Royal 
Family,) there can be no other miftrefs.” 
This genuine mark of delicate fenfibi- 
lity, in a woman of her humble {tation in 
., date, 
