Free When the King Took Flight by Timothy Tackett

servants and guards who
slept just outside.46
    In the meantime, the queen and a few trusted servingwomen set about devising disguises appropriate to the "de Korff family," including a small girl's dress for the five-year-old dauphin and the
outfit of a financial agent for the king. Other than this special costume, the king seems to have taken only the magnificent red and
gold suit worn during the trip to Cherbourg in 1786, which he
planned to don when he took command of his loyal military on the
frontier. A queen of France, however, could hardly be expected to
live like a commoner, and Marie took great pains to smuggle out in
advance not only an entire wardrobe, but most of her diamonds and
jewelry, several items of furniture, and a specially constructed and
fully stocked cosmetics case. Care was taken to cover these diverse
arrangements with a variety of ploys and explanations. Unfortunately, however, the construction and shipping of the "necessary"
for the queen's cosmetics was discovered and aroused the suspicions
of one of her servants, a woman who was not only a patriot but also
the mistress of an officer in the national guard. In the end, the family would make the fateful decision to postpone the escape by one
day so that this woman would be off duty.47

    Indeed, if they were ever to hope to slip out unobserved, it was
essential to catch the Revolutionaries off guard and unsuspecting.
Through the first half of 1791, and especially after April 18, the
royal couple consciously pursued a policy of deceit. While they denounced the Revolution at every opportunity in secret messages to
foreign leaders, they did everything in their power to lull the patriots into thinking they now fully supported the National Assembly.
On April i9 Louis went to the Assembly in person for the first time
in over a year and reiterated his acceptance of the constitution, and
four days later he sent a similar well-publicized message to all his
ambassadors. Shortly thereafter the king and queen attended Easter
mass with the constitutional clergy, despite the king's revulsion for
the "schismatic" church. As Fersen explained to Breteuil, the king
had resolved to "sacrifice everything for the execution of his plans
and to lull the factious parties [the Revolutionaries] to sleep concerning his true intentions. Henceforth, he will give the appearance
of recognizing and entirely embracing the revolution and the revo lutionary leaders. He will appear to rely entirely on their counsel
and will anticipate the will of the mobs in order to keep them quiet
and create the sense of confidence necessary for his escape from
Paris."48

    During the same period, General Bouille was following a similar
campaign of deception with the local patriots in his headquarters of
Metz, some i8o miles to the east of Paris. Francois-Claude-Amour,
marquis de Bouille, fifty-two years old, had already won considerable notoriety in France as veteran of the Seven Years' War and the
American Revolution, and the hero-or archvillain, depending on
one's point of view-in quelling the recent military mutiny in
Nancy. Indeed, several Revolutionary political leaders had recently
approached him as a potential ally. But since the bishop of Pamiers
first brought him a letter from the king, requesting his assistance, he
had, by his own account, entirely devoted his services to the monarch. After a visit by Fersen to Metz and after having sent his oldest
son and aide-de-camp to Paris, he had developed an elaborate plan
for the king's journey to the frontier.49
    The first and most pressing task had been to choose a fortified
position to which the king could retreat. Although Bouille at first
considered both Besancon and Valenciennes, he ultimately recommended the small citadel town of Montmedy, to the south and west
of Luxembourg. Not only was this fortress under Bouille's direct
command, but it had the advantage of strong fortifications directed
toward