“He has just set out from Varennes.”
“Where goes he?”
“To Paris.”
Bouillé did not give himself time to reply.
He dashed his spurs into the flanks of his horse.
His regiment followed him.
Varennes saw the regiment descend “like a waterspout amongst its vines,” to quote the language of the proces verbal.
When he arrived at the Place du Grand Monarque, the King had started more than an hour.
He acted so as to lose no time. The Rue de l’Hôpital was barricaded; the bridge was barricaded. They made a detour round the town; they crossed the river by the ford at the Boucheries, in order to take up a favorable position on the Clermont road, to attack the escort.