All was quiet with them and on the road the hussar had passed the royal carriage.
"All's well," thought Count Damas, going home to bid his bugler sound "Boot and Saddle!"
All was therefore going for the best, except for the St. Menehould incident, by which Dandoins' thirty dragoons were locked up.
But Damas could dispense with them from having a hundred and forty.
Returning to the King's carriage, it was on the road to Varennes.
This place is composed of an upper and a lower town; the relay of horses was to be ready beyond the town, on the farther side of the bridge and a vaulted passage, where a stoppage would be bad.
Count Jules Bouille and Raigecourt were to guard these horses and Charny was to guide the party through the daedalus of streets. He had spent a fortnight in Varennes and had studied and jotted down every point; not a lane but was familiar, not a boundary post but he knew it.
Unfortunately Charny was not to the fore.
Hence the Queen's anxiety doubled. Something grave must have befallen him to keep him remote when he knew how much he was wanted.
The King grew more distressed, too, as he had so reckoned on Charny that he had not brought away the plan of the town.