CHAPTER X.
ON THE HIGHWAY.
The Queen had not taken ten paces beyond the gateway before a man in ablue garrick and with his face hidden by a tarpaulin hat, caught herconvulsively by the arm and dragged her to a hackney coach stationed atthe St. Nicaise corner: it was Count Charny.
They expected to see the Queen come up, after this half hour of delay,dying, downcast and prostrated, but they saw her merry and gladsome; thecut of the cane which she had given a carriage-wheel and fancied was onthe rider, had made her forget her fatigue, her blunder, her obstinacy,the lost time and the consequences of the delay.
Charny pointed out a saddled horse which a servant was holding at alittle distance to his brother who mounted and dashed ahead to pioneerthe way. He would have to get the horses ready at Bondy.
Seeing him go, the Queen uttered some words of thanks which he did nothear.
"Let us be off, madam; we have not one second to lose," said Charny,with that firmness of will mixed with respect which great men take forgrand occasions.
The Queen entered the hackney-coach, where were five already, the King,Lady Elizabeth, the Princess Royal, her brother and Lady Tourzel. Shehad to sit at the back with her son on her lap, with the King besideher: the two ladies and the girl were on the front seat. Fortunately thehackney carriages, old family coaches, were roomy in those days.
Charny got upon the box and to avert suspicion, turned the horses roundand had them driven to the gate circuitously.
Their special conveyance was waiting for them there, on the side-roadleading to the ditch. This part was lonesome. The traveling carriage hadthe door open, and Malden and Valory were on the steps.
In an instant the six travelers were out on the road. Charny drove thehack to the ditch and upset it in it, before returning to the party.
They were inside; Malden got up behind; Valory joined Charny on the box.The four horses went off at a rattling good pace as a quarter past onesounded from the church clock.
In an hour they were at Bondy, where Isidore had better teams ready. Hesaw the royal coach come up.
Charny got down to get inside as had been settled; but Lady Tourzel, whowas to be sent back to town alone, had not been consulted.
With all her profound devotion to the Royal Family, she was unalterableon points of court etiquette. She stated that her duty was to look afterthe royal children, whom she was bound not to quit for a single instantunless by the King's express order, or the Queen's; but there being noprecedent of a Queen having ordered the royal governess away from hercharges, she would not go.
The Queen quivered with impatience, for she doubly wished Charny in thevehicle, as a lover who would make it pleasanter and as a Queen, as hewould guard her.
Louis did not dare pronounce on the grave question. He tried to get outof the dilemma by a side-issue. Lady Tourzel stood ready to yield to theKing's command but he dared not command her, so strong are the minutestregulations in the courtly-bred.
"Arrange anyway you like, count," said the fretful Queen, "only you mustbe with us."
"I will follow close to the carriage, like a simple servant," hereplied: "I will return to town to get a horse by the one my brothercame therefrom, and changing my dress I will join you at full speed."
"Is there no other means?" said Marie Antoinette in despair.
"I see none," remarked the King.
Lady Tourzel took her seat triumphantly and the stage-coach started off.
The importance of this discussion had made them forget to serve out thefirearms which went back to Paris in the hack.
By daybreak, which was three o'clock, they changed horses at Meaux wherethe King was hungry. They brought their own provisions in the boot ofthe coach, cold veal and bread and wine, which Charny had seen to. Butthere were no knives and forks and the King had to carve with "Jean,"that is, Malden's hunting-knife.
During this, the Queen leaned out to see if Charny were returning.
"What are you thinking of, madam?" inquired the King, who had found thetwo guards would not take refreshment.
"That Lafayette is in a way at this hour," replied the lady.
But nothing showed that their departure had been seen.
Valory said that all would go well.
"Cheer up!" he said, as he got upon the box with Malden and off theyrolled again.
At eight o'clock they reached the foot of a long slope where the Kinghad all get out to walk up. Scattered over the road, the pretty childrenromping and playing, the sister resting on her brother's arm andsmiling: the pensive women looking backward, and all lit up by the Junesun while the forest flung a transparent shade upon the highway--theyseemed a family going home to an old manor to resume a regular andpeaceful life and not a King and Queen of France fleeing from the thronewhich would be converted into their scaffold.
An accident was soon to stir up the dormant passions in the bosoms ofthe party.
The Queen suddenly stopped as though her feet had struck root.
A horseman appeared a quarter-league away, wrapped in the cloud of dustwhich his horse's hoofs threw up.
Marie Antoinette dared not say: "It is Count Charny!" but she didexclaim, "News from Paris!"
Everybody turned round except the Dauphin who was chasing abutterfly--compared with its capture the news from the capital littlemattered.
Being shortsighted, the King drew a small spy-glass from his pocket.
"I believe it is only Lord Charny," he said.
"Yes, it is he," said the Queen.
"Go on," said the other: "he will catch up to us and we have no time tolose."
The Queen dared not suggest that the news might be of value.
It was only a few seconds at stake anyhow, for the rider galloped up asfast as his horse could go.
He stared as he came up for he could not understand why the party shouldbe scattered all over the road.
He arrived as the huge vehicle stopped at the top of the ridge to takeup the passengers.
It was indeed Charny as the Queen's heart and the King's eyes hadtold them. He was now wearing a green riding coat with flap collar, abroad brimmed hat with steel buckle, white waistcoat, tight buckskinbreeches, and high boots reaching above the knee. His usually dead whitecomplexion was animated by the ride and sparks of the same flame whichreddened his cheeks shot from his eyes.
He looked like a conqueror as he rushed along; the Queen thought she hadnever seen him look handsomer. She heaved a deep sigh as the horsemanleaped off his horse and saluted the King.
Turning, he bowed to the Queen. All grouped themselves round him, excepttwo guardsmen who stood aloof in respect.
"Come near, gentlemen," said the King: "what news Count Charny bringsconcerns us all."
"To begin with, all goes well," said Charny: "At two in the morning nonesuspected our flight."
They breathed easier: the questions were multiplied. He related thathe had entered the town and been stopped by a patrol of volunteers whohowever became convinced that the King was still in the palace. Heentered his own room and changed his dress: the aid of Lafayette whofirst had a doubt, had become calm and dismissed extra guards.
He had returned on the same horse from the difficulty of getting a freshone so early. It almost foundered, poor beast, but he reached Bondyupon it. There he took a fresh one and continued his ride with nothingalarming along the road.
The Queen found that such good news deserved the favor of her extendingher hand to the bearer; he kissed it respectfully, and she turned pale.Was it from joy that he had returned, or with sorrow that he did notpress it?
When the vehicle started off, Charny rode by the side.
At the next relay house all was ready except a saddle horse for thecount which Isidore had not foreseen the want of. There would be delayfor one to be found. The vehicle went off without him, but he overtookit in five minutes. It was settled that he should follow and not escortit. Still he kept close enough for the Queen to see him if she puther head out
of the window and thus he exchanged a few words with theillustrious couple when the pace allowed it.
Charny changed horses at Montmirail and was dashing on thinking it had agood start of him when he almost ran into it. It had been pulled up froma trace breaking. He dismounted and found a new leather in the boot,filled with repairing stuff. The two guardsmen profited by the halt toask for their weapons, but the King opposed their having them. On theobjection that the vehicle might be stopped he replied that he wouldnot have blood spilt on his account.
They lost half an hour by this mishap, when seconds were priceless.
They arrived at Chalons by two o'clock.
"All will go well if we reach Chalons without being stopped," the Kinghad said.
Here the King showed himself for a moment. In the crowd around the hugeconveyance two men watched him with sustained attention. One of themsuddenly went away while the other came up.
"Sire, you will wreck all if you show yourself thus," he said. "Makehaste, you lazybones," he cried to the postboys: "this is a pretty wayto serve those who pay you handsomely."
He set to work, aiding the hostlers.
It was the postmaster.
At last the horses were hooked on and the postboys in their saddles andboots. The first tried to start his pair when they went clean off theirfeet. They got them up and all clear again, when the second span wentoff their feet! This time the postboy was caught under them.
Charny, who was looking on in silence, seized hold of the man anddragged him out of his heavy boots, remaining under the horse.
"What kind of horses have you given us?" demanded he of the postinghousemaster.
"The best I had in," replied the man.
The horses were so entangled with the traces that the more they pulledat them the worse the snarl became.
Charny flew down to the spot.
"Unbuckle and take off everything," he said, "and harness up afresh. Weshall get on quicker so."
The postmaster lent a hand in the work, cursing with desperation.
Meanwhile the other man, who had been looking on had run to the mayor,whom he told that the Royal Family were in a coach passing through thetown. Luckily the official was far from being a republican and didnot care to take any responsibility on himself. Instead of making theassertion sure, he shilly-shallied so that time was lost and finallyarrived as the coach disappeared round the corner.
But more than twenty minutes had been frittered away.
Alarm was in the royal party; the Queen thought that the downfall of thetwo pair of horses were akin to the four candles going out one afteranother which she had taken to portend the death of herself, her husbandand their two children.
Still, on getting out of the town, she and the King and his sister hadall exclaimed:
"We are saved!"
But, a hundred paces beyond, a man shouted in at the window:
"Your measures are badly taken--you will be arrested!"
The Queen screamed but the man jumped into the hedge and was lost tosight.
Happily they were but four leagues from Sommevelle Bridge, whereChoiseul and forty hussars were to be posted. But it was three in theafternoon and they were nearly four hours late.
The Royal Life Guard; or, the flight of the royal family. Page 10