I found all the family at table, as, on account of the day’s excitement, the supper, which usually was partaken of at eight o’clock, to-night was delayed till ten.
They raised a cry of joy when they saw me. Maître Duplay, who had been with the National Guard of the Quartier St. Honoré, fancied that he saw me at the door of the royal carriage, by the side of the grenadiers; but the thing appeared so improbable, that he had told it to his family more as a delusion than a fact.
Scarcely was I recognised, than the two girls immediately made a space for me between them.
This was the more easy, as the elder apprentice was absent, leaving only the one enamoured of Mdlle. Cornelie, Félicién Herda.
I did not want much pressing to sit down; I was literally dying of hunger and thirst. The young girls wished to ask me questions; but M. Duplay excused me until I had both eaten and drank.
In a few minutes, I rejoined the supper eaters, and set myself to gratify the public curiosity.
It was necessary for me to recount everything, omitting no details, from the moment when M. Drouet appeared to the King as a vision, on the top of the Hill des Réligieuses, to the moment when the carriage started from the house of the grocer, Sauce, and, lastly, to their arrival at the gate of the Tuileries.
It can be easily understood with what avidity my tale was devoured, especially by the women. At that period, the women took a great interest in the Revolution: Madame Duplay, Mdlle. Cornelie, and Mdlle. Estelle made me repeat the same details over and over again; and, though they had a sigh for Madame Elizabeth, the Queen was ever an Austrian—that is to say, an enemy.
It was now eleven o’clock. Duplay, bursting with the news which I brought him, resolved to go to the Jacobin Club. There was no doubt but that, in consequence of the great events taking place, the club would, despite the late hour, be holding a sitting.
He asked me if I would like to accompany him; but, indefatigable though I was, I asked his permission to retire to repose.