Free When the King Took Flight by Timothy Tackett Page A

the southwest, in the direction of Paris, as well as toward
the northern frontier. However, the king would not be kept in the
fortress itself, for fear he might be trapped by a siege, but in the
chateau of Thonnelle, just north of Montmedy and less than two
miles from the Austrian frontier. In all, the monarch would be protected by some ten thousand troops, both inside the fortifications
and in adjacent positions."
    As for the escape itinerary of the king and his family, Bouille had
initially proposed the most direct road through Reims, Vouziers,
and Stenay-to the north of the route actually taken. Not only
was it the most direct road, but it passed primarily through poor and sparsely inhabited countryside, largely avoiding the major radical strongholds. But Louis had traveled a portion of this route
for his coronation in Reims, and he seemed obsessively frightened
that he might be recognized by local Revolutionaries. In the end, a
more southerly road was chosen: through Montmirail, Chalons-surMarne, Sainte-Menehould, and Clermont, though carefully avoiding the town of Verdun, reputed to be particularly "extremist.""
Once the itinerary had been selected, Bouille enlisted Francois de
Goguelat to reconnoiter the 15o-mile journey by making the trip
with watch in hand in one of the regular postal coaches. Forty-five
years old and trained as an army engineer and mapmaker, Goguelat
was an exalted monarchist who had once been personal secretary to
the queen. Since the king's party would have to travel as rapidly as
possible and change horses frequently, Goguelat also took note of
each of the relay posts along the way. After Clermont, however, the travelers would turn north to avoid Verdun and leave the royal post
road. So plans had to be made to prepare fresh horses from the
army itself for the last leg of the journey, positioning them in a secluded spot just outside the town of Varennes. Since the conspirators had little knowledge of the political atmosphere in Varennes,
Goguelat quietly-but awkwardly, as we have seen-interviewed
several citizens there, including the deputy mayor Sauce, and concluded that the town was entirely "safe." Bouille himself would be
waiting with horses and a large escort at the final relay near Dun,
about fifteen miles beyond Varennes and an equal distance south of
Montmedy.sz

    [To view this image, refer to
the print version of this title.]
    Marquis Francois-Claude-Amour de Bouille.

    The issue of a military escort for the king posed a particular
problem for the planners. They all wished to provide Louis with
protection as soon as possible after he left Paris, but it was dangerous to send troops too close to the capital. Moreover, if a military
escort were positioned too long in advance, it might actually attract
attention to the royal family's carriage. Ultimately, in agreement
with the king and queen, it was decided to dispatch a relatively
small number of cavalrymen a few hours before the family's arrival. If need be, they would explain to the local population that the
troops had been sent to escort a shipment of money for the pay of
the soldiers. But in general, all such detachments would be instructed to watch from afar and to follow well behind the royal
carriages, intervening directly only if the king were recognized and
appeared to be in trouble.53 The extent to which soldiers should intervene or not was perhaps the most delicate question of the entire
operation. And here Bouille was forced to rely on the discretion of
his younger field officers, many of them to be informed of the
king's arrival only at the last moment.
    After some debate, it was decided to establish the most advanced
escort brigade near the relay post of Somme-Vesle, a village just
east of Chalons. Among his other duties, the commander of this
brigade was to send a courier notifying detachments farther along
the route as soon as the royal party had passed. Perhaps equally important, he