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.