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At the palace of the Tuileries, the secret of the contemplated flight had been confided only to the king, the queen, the Princess Elizabeth, sister of the king, and two or three faithful attendants. The Count de Fersen, a most noble-spirited young gentleman from Sweden, most cheerfully periled his life in undertaking the exterior arrangements of this hazardous enterprise.
The Swedish envoy was Count Fersen, the same nobleman who had distinguished himself in Paris, during the early period of the Revolution, by his devotion to King Louis and Marie-Antoinette. Buonaparte refused peremptorily to enter into any negotiation in which a man, so well known for his hostility to the cause of the Republic, should have any part; and Fersen instantly withdrew.
But in the preceding year De Fersen had had a carriage of unusual dimensions built for some friends in the South of Europe, so that he had no difficulty now in procuring another of similar pattern from the same maker; and Mr. Craufurd agreed to receive it into his stables, and at the proper hour to convey it outside the barrier.
Inspired by her, Fersen undertook to publish the manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick, threatening Paris with ``total subversion if the royal family were molested. The effect produced was diametrically opposite to that intended. The manifesto aroused indignation against the monarch, who was regarded as an accomplice, and increased his unpopularity. From that day he was marked for the scaffold.
At last, in 1791, it was decided that the king and the queen and their children, of whom they now had three, should endeavor to escape from Paris. Fersen planned their flight, but it proved to be a failure. Every one remembers how they were discovered and halted at Varennes.
The king had witnessed, with tears in his eyes, his most faithful adherents ignominiously driven from his palace and exposed by his official protector to the insults and outrages of the populace. Thus the royal family could hope to find no one disposed to aid their escape without the palace walls. The Count de Fersen was the principal agent and confidant of this hazardous enterprise.
"I fear to hope again do not arouse my expectations only to have them disappointed," and rising in the greatest agitation, the Queen began to pace up and down the little room. "Who would have thought that Fersen could fail? and yet he did." She covered her face with her hands to hide the tears which filled her eyes.
"When the Queen saw the body-guards drawn up to accompany the King's departure, she ran to the window, threw apart the sash, and was going to speak to them, to recommend the King to their care; but the Count Fersen prevented it. "'For God's sake, Madame, exclaimed he, 'do not commit yourself to the suspicion of having any doubts of the people!
What passed at the Tuileries during these decisive hours? the secret of the projected flight had been carefully confined to the king, the queen, the princess Elizabeth, two or three faithful attendants, and the Count de Fersen, a Swedish gentlemen who had the care of the exterior arrangements confided to him.
FERSEN. It will that. HILLMAN. Maybe you won't believe me, Mr. Pindar, but it was hard to see the shops closed down as hard on us as it was on you. We take pride in them, too. I guess you won't regret it. I hope not. I ought to tell you that you may thank my son for this my son and Dr. Pindar. RENCH. We appreciate it, just the same.
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