“No, M. le Comte; we are all Royalists.”
M. de Dampierre lifted his hat as high as his length of arm would permit him, raised himself in his stirrups, and cried “Vive le Roi!”
The King put his head out of the window, and without any expression of gratitude or remembrance, bowed to him.
M. de Dampierre retreated out of the crowd with trouble, being obliged to make his horse go backwards. I remember him as well as if the events occurred but yesterday. He wore gray trousers, long riding boots, a white waistcoat, a three-cornered hat, trimmed with gold lace. As usual with him, he carried, slung over his shoulder, a little single-barrelled gun.
I lost sight of him. I fancied that he took the direction of the Rue de l’Abreuvoir.
During this time, the Mayor and members of the municipality had advanced as far as the bridge of the Aisne, situate at the extremity of the Porte au Bois, to meet the royal family.
A municipal officer then took occasion to speak, and to tell the King what alarms his flight had caused in France.
Louis XVI was contented to reply, with an ill-tempered air, “I never intended to leave my kingdom.”
The crowd was so great that we took half an hour to go five hundred yards.