Barnave insisted, however, on waiting on the royal family; but the Queen made him a sign, and he yielded.
I was one of the guard at the door of the dining-room.
In the evening, MM. Drouet and Guillaume set out at full speed, to inform the Assembly of what had taken place.
Drouet came to bid me good-bye.
“M. Drouet,” said I to him, “you know me, as I am your pupil. I take the greatest interest in that which is going on. It will be something to talk about for the rest of my life. Give the order, before you leave, to have me always placed close to their Majesties. The fatigue will be nothing, and I wish to see all that goes on.”
“Be it as you wish,” said he, without making the least objection.
That was the reason why I had been appointed one of the guards that day at the door of the dining-room.
This is what happened at Dormans.
After dinner, the three commissaires went into the neighboring room—that is to say, the one at which I mounted guard.
“Citizens,” said Barnave to them, “we are commissaires of the National Assembly, and not the executioners of the royal family; and to make them proceed under this burning sun is simply to conduct them to the scaffold.”