increased; and the circulating fpecie of the kingdom difappeared, as it were by a miracle.-The non-juring priests were more active and audacious than ever, and emiffaries were employed to corrupt the foldiery of almoft every regiment, and efpecially on the frontiers.

The perfidious Bouillé, who had fo wantonly imbrued his hands in the blood of his fellow-foldiers, in the affair of Nancy, was the principal agent on this occalion. By a variety of fictions and excufes, he evaded for a long time the civic oath; but at length he took it with fuch fpontaneous tokens of zeal as left no room to doubt of his fidelity. He was entrusted with the protec tion of the frontiers; a truft which he exercifed more confiftently with his own character and views, than with the principles of duty and ho nour. He either permitted the forti fications of all the frontier towns to run to decay, or affifted in their dilapidation. The garrifons were left without provifions or ammunition. The national foldiery were replaced wherever it was poffible with foreigners, and the utmost pains were taken to spread difunion and difcontent among the national troops. The place nominally appointed for the retreat of the king, was Mont medy, a fortified town of Luxemburgh; but it was generally fuppofed that his actual refidence was to be within the emperor's domimions. Here the emigrants from al quarters were to be affembled, and were to act in concert with the powerful fuccours which were to be furnished by Pruffia and Auftria, while other diverfions were to be made on the fide of Spain and Savoy, by the refpective monarchs of thofe

countries...

Such is the account which is moft generally believed of the motives

and plan of this ill-concerted and unfortunate journey; unfortunate for the country, because it deftroyed that confidence which the people ought to have in the executive vernment; and doubly unfortunate for the monarch, becaufe it-loft him much of the love of an affectionate and loyal people, who, in the molt diftrefsful and tumultuous circumftances of the revolution, was never known to waver or abate in the refpect and perfonal regard which they retained for their fovereign. The king's intention was not kept fuch a profound fecret, but that it was known to M. Gouvion, one of the officers of the national guard, who communicated it to the mayor and M. la Fayette: the guard was in confequence doubled, and fuch precautions were taken as appeared likely to prevent every poffibility of effecting the intention. On the night of the 20th of June, however, the king, queen, madame Elizabeth, filter to the king, and the whole of the royal family difappeared. Soon after their departure, it was "difcovered that a fewer which rañ under the princess Elizabeth's apart! ment, from the castle of the Thuilleries, and communicated with the river, under the firft arch of the Pont Royal, had been cleaned out, and covered with planks and fand.Through this it was fuppofed the royal family efcaped, and proceeded in a boat along the river to Seve, where a ftrong and convenient coach, made for the purpose, received the king, the queen, the dauphin, and madame Elizabeth. The others were conveyed in poll-chaifes. Monfieur and madame took the road to Mons; and the king's party that of Montmedy.

If a test had been wanting of the fpirit and patriotifm of the nation, none could have been devised for fac

tisfactory

tisfactory as this. The affembly received the news with a calmnefs and dignity, fufficient almoft to difcountenance oppofition. Their firft care was the public safety and tranquillity. They committed to the minifters the execution of the laws, and the other political functions of the king. A new oath of fidelity to the nation was prescribed to the military. Couriers were dispatched to all the different parts of the kingdom, with orders to stop the fugitives, if poffible, and to recommend the prefervation of peace and good order. After thefe precautions, the affembly, with unparalleled calmnefs, refumed their ordinary labours, and proceeded to the difcuffion of the penal code.

Among the people, the firft im pulfe was a combined emotion of confternation, furprise, and indignation, The king's arms and effigies were taken down and broken by the populace of Paris. A proclamation from the affembly, however, foon reftored order. The national guard affembled deputations from different bodies appeared at the bar of the affembly, with the strongest and moft firm profeffions of patriotifm and obedience.

Though the majority of the nation, however, thus evinced its attachment to the revolution, the flight of the king was viewed in very different lights, according as the different parties felt their particular prejudices affected by the event. At the firft of the revolution, two parties only divided the mafs of the people; the friends of privileges and aristocracy, and the friends of liberty: but the latter had fince divided, and a party more dangerous to the new conftitution than even the aristocracy themselves had started up; a party, who, in queft of ideal perfection, are never fatisfied with any established form . 1791.

of government; but who are plan ning Utopian republics, inftead of promoting the peace and induftry of a people, and the ftability of the government, which are the only cir cumftances that can give greatnefs or profperity to a nation.

To the republican party the de parture of the king was a matter of triumph: their love of change was now likely to meet at leaft a prefent gratification: they enlarged upon the abfurdity of a government which enabled an individual to throw the whole ftate into confufion: they reprefented the king as a perjured monfter, whofe patriotifm and love for his people would prefently be evinced by his entering France at the head of hoftile armies, to ravage the country, and to drench it in blood. The lofs of authority, they ftated, muft be ever, to him who once poffeffed it, a subject of regret; and they exhorted the lovers of liberty, even if the king's flight fhould be prevented, to make use of the opportunity to get rid of a natural enemy.

The more temperate and founder thinkers faw the matter in a very different point of view. The majority of them preferred a limited monarchy, as at least the moft expedient form of government, and confidered it as abfurd in a nation enjoying perfect liberty, to difpute about the mode or form in which it fhould be adminiftered. They confidered, that even if the republican form were preferable, custom and habit had inured the French to monarchy, and their strongest prejudices inclined them to fupport it: that the nation was not in a state to endure the fhock of a fecond revolution. They therefore contemplated it as the happiest event that could occur, fhould the king by any fortunate chance be restored;

H

and

and forefaw a train of the most formidable evils threatening the kingdom and the people, fhould he fall into the hands of their enemies. These difafters were happily prevented by the patriotifm, vigilance, and good conduct of two obfcure individuals. To favour their efcape, the royal family had obtained a paffport through the medium of the Ruffian ambaffador, in the name of a baronefs de Kortz, with her fuite, as travelling to Frankfort. They travelled in the moft private manner till they found themselves at a confiderable diftance from the capital, when they were furnished by Bouillé with detachments of dragoons, under the pretence of guarding fome treafure for the pay of the foldiers. They proceeded without interruption for 156 miles, and were but a few leagues from the frontiers when they were arrefted. At St. Menehoud, the poft mafter, a M. Drouet, had formerly been a dragoon in the regiment of Condé.— He immediately recognifed the queen, and was forcibly attracted by the refemblance of the king to his portrait on the affignat of fifty livres. He was confirmed in his fufpicions, on feeing the detachment of dragoons relieved by a detachment of huffars, and determined to ftop them; but, being alone, was prudent enough not to expofe himfelf to the oppofition of the foldiers. He fuffered the carriage to pafs, but mounted a fwift horfe, and took a cross-road to Varennes, which was their next flage. He communicated his fufpicions to the poft-mafter there, who had alfo formerly been a dragoon; and they concluded that the only mode of effecting their purpose was to barricade the treet and bridge over. which the carriages must neceffarily país. Fortunately, on the bridge there flood at the moment a carriage

loaded with furniture; they overfet it,, and called together the may or the procureur de la commune, and the commandant of the national guard, and in a few minutes the number of the patriots was increased to eight men. and the procureur approached the principal carriage, and asked the names of the travellers. The queen petulantly anfwered, they were in hafte, and produced the paffport, which was thought a fufficient warrant by feveral perfons; but the postmafters combated the opinion, on the ground of its not being counterfigned by the prefident of the national aflembly; and asked why a Ruffian baronefs fhould be ef corted by the military of France? It was determined therefore to flop the travellers; and as they entered the houfe of the procureur, the king throwing off his difguife refumed his dignity.-" I am your king, it is true," faid he: " thefe are my wife and children. I charge you to treat us with that refpect which the French nation have always manifefted towards their fovereign."

The commandant

The national guard now arrived in confiderable numbers, and at the fame moment the huffars, who endeavoured fword in hand to force the house where the king was; but were aufwered by the national guard, that they fhould never carry him off alive. The commandant of the national guard had placed at each end of the freet two field-pieces, which however were not charged; but they were fufficient to intimidate the huffars, who, upon the commandant ordering the artillery-men to their pofts with their matches in their hands, relinquished their object, and quietly furrendered the king to the cuftody of the national guard.

The news of thefe tranfactions. was received by the aflembly with

7

inex

inexpreffible fatisfaction. The perjured Bouillé was fufpended from his functions; and orders were given for arrefting him, and all who appeared to be concerned in the flight of the king: but Bouillé evaded for the prefent the axe of juflice, by flying the kingdom. The affembly next appointed two commiffioners to examine the inferior agents of the king's flight; and three commiffioners, Meffrs. Tronchet, d'André, and Duport, were appointed to receive the declaration of the king and queen.

The royal family were escorted to Paris by a confiderable body of the national guard, who increased in numbers as they approached the metropolis. Meffrs. Barnave, Pethion, and Latour Maubourg had been dispatched to Varennes for the purpose of accompanying them back to Paris; and public tranquillity was fo well preferved, that they entered the Thuilleries on the 25th without any difturbance, and with no apparent inconvenience but the fatigue of the journey. On the 27th the commiffioners waited on the king and queen to receive their declarations. The king perfifted in the affertion that he had made from the firit, "that he had no intention of leaving the kingdom, and meant only to fix at Montmedi, which is a fortified town, till the vigour of government fhould in fome degree be restored, and the conftitution fettled. A further reafon for prefer ring this as the place of his refidence, was, he added, that in cafe of any difturbance on the frontiers he might be ready to prefent himself in the poft of danger, and to prevent infurrection. His reafons for quitting Paris, he declared to be, the infults to which he was liable there, and the inflammatory publications which were daily produced, particularly

against the queen, which rendered him apprehenfive for her fafety ftill more than for his own in the metropolis." The declaration of the queen refted entirely on the plea,

that as the king had determined to remove himself and family, it was impoffible that fhe could admit the thought of voluntarily parting from him and her children."

Monfieur and Madame, who had taken a different road, were more fuccefsful in effecting their efcape, and arrived fafe at Bruffels on the 23d.

The neceffity of completing the fabric of the conftitution became now more than ever apparent, and the affembly laboured inceffantly on the municipal code and the organization of the arity. In the mean time every precaution was taken to preferve the peace of the kingdom; and a

decree was paffed, the fubftance of which was, that fuch of the emigrants as did not return within two months fhould be subjected to triple taxes for the year 1791.

The flight of the king feemed indeed the fignal for the emigrants to commence their hoftile proceedings. M. Cazales and fome others of the violent ariftocratic party fent in their refignations to the national affembly; troops were levied on the frontiers in the king's name, and many of the former officers of the royal regiments exerted themfelves to feduce the foldiers from their allegiance by promifes of advancement and high rewards: their attempts, however, were in general without fuccefs; a circumftance which has not been adverted to by thofe who fuppofe the attachment of the French foldiery to the revolution to have been entirely venal. As thefe levies were made in the name of the king, he thought it proper formally to difavow them,

H 2

which

which he did in a letter to the national assembly dated the 7th of July. The return of the king appeared to make little alteration in the defigns of the fovereigns who were confederated againtt France. Spain, indeed, whofe political interefts are diametrically oppofite to a rupture with France, renewed on the occafion its profeffions of amity. The other courts kept ftill at a diftance, and the German frontier was crowded with troops, and every where en gaged in military preparations. He muft know little indeed of public affairs, who can fuppofe that such a circumftance could make any alteration in the intentions of the combined courts. The politics of defpots are always felfish; increase of territory is ftill their favourite purfuit. It would be weak to fuppofe that compaffion for the emigrants, fympathy for the king, or even zeal for the maintenance of royal authority, would be motives ftrong enough to engage them in the expences and difficulties of war. A ftronger incitement must be fuppofed; and that could be no other than the difmemberment of France, connected moft probably with the deftruction and annihilation of the petty ftates of Germany. Victorious, Auftria and Pruffia may be enriched with the fpoils of France; and even difappointed in that object, as the fmaller tates of Germany will in that cafe be the chief theatre of war, excufes may be found for placing them under the protection of more powerful empires, and for aggrandizing thefe at the expence of their weak and indigent neighbours.

France however ftill continued in too united a state to warrant any immediate enterprise against her. Addreffes breathing the ftrongest profeffions of loyalty and attachment to the conflitution poured in from

every quarter. Foreigners refident in France feemed folicitous of the honour of being claffed among her citizens. Among these it would be unpardonable not to mention particularly general Luckner. This celebrated veteran, who had renounced his German origin for the privi leges of a Frenchman, embraced the opportunity of teftifying his wifh to conquer or die in the fervice of liberty and the conftitution. The conduct of the affembly was not unworthy the confidence which the nation feemed to place in its virtue and patriotifm. Calmnefs, dignity and moderation characterized its proceedings at this period-In oppofition to the violent republicans, the legislature tenaciously adhered to its conftitutional decree concerning the inviolability of the king's perfon. Even the emigrants were treated with a degree of indulgence: the prince de Condé himself, though profeffedly in a state of war with his country, did not experience either hafte or feverity from the affembly. M. Duveyrier was fent as envoy to him and the other princes, to folicit their return to the enjoyment of happinefs and security in the bofom of their country; but this ambaffador of peace was imprisoned, and infulted in the most barbarous manner.

The unanimity which prevailed throughout France, from the time of the king's return till his acceptance of the conftitution, was however interrupted by a fhort but difgraceful riot at Paris. Several efforts had been made by ill difpofed perfons, fuppofed to be in the pay of the emigrants, or of the hoftile princes, to difturb the public tranquillity, by circulating lifts of members of the affembly who were reported to be bribed to betray their truft, and other infidious manœuvres. These efforts however all proved abortive