In the course of the ten months since I had last been at Varennes, he had paid two or three visits to his friends Billaud and Guillaume, and had never failed to come and see me, and to invite me to take breakfast with him, as the case might be. This time he had a more mysterious air than usual; he engaged a private room at the Brothers Leblanc, ordered dinner for four, and asked his two friends to come and join us immediately at the “Bras d’Or.” For some time the horizon had been lowering. It was evident that there was some counterplot hatching. On the 1st of March we had heard of the affair of the Gentlemen of the Dagger. On the 20th of April, we had heard that the King, intending to go to St. Cloud, had been stopped by the people, and was afraid to leave the Tuileries. We knew, vaguely, what was going on in Italy. The Count D’Artois was at Mantua with the Emperor Leopold, asking for an invasion of France. The King did not ask that invasion; but D’Artois knew well that he would be glad of it. A year before, everybody saw, from the letter from the Count de Provence to M. de Favras, how little place the King held in the calculations of his brothers. The young King of Sweden, Gustavus, after having been the enemy of Catharine, conquered by her, became her friend, and at the same time her agent, and was at Aix, in Savoy, publicly offering his sword to the King; while the Count de Fersen, an intimate of the Queen’s, was carrying on a correspondence with M. de Bouillé. People said that for the last three months the Queen had caused to be made a trousseau for herself and children. They said, likewise, that she had caused to be made a magnificent travelling outfit, sufficient for at least an absence of six months. Her friend, M. de Fersen, they said, was superintending the construction of an English chaise, capable of holding from ten to twelve persons. All these rumors tended to one end, and caused the two last appearances of M. Drouet at Varennes. His post-house was situated on one of the short cuts to the frontier; and by the road many nobles had emigrated, as if to point out the proper route for the King. A new event had taken place, which had appeared to M. Drouet of sufficient importance to warrant a consultation with his friends. This was the event I speak of. On the 20th of June, in the morning, a detachment of hussars, with brown dolmans (some said that they were a part of De Lauzun’s regiment, others that they were a part of Esterhazy’s), had entered St. Menehould by the Clermont road. At that time, when the troops were billeted on the tradespeople, the authorities were generally informed of their arrival two or three days in advance. In this case, the authorities had received no advice. M. Drouet had spoken to the officer commanding the detachment. This officer, whom he remembered to have seen two months before passing between St. Menehould, Châlons, and Varennes, was called M. Goguelot.