Morris knew his man—and in this dire extremity recommended the proud Bourbon to put his fate in de Monciel's hands. And then these two, Morris and de Monciel, called into council the hot-headed and rampant Étienne Brémond, docteur de la Sorbonne, and began, Richard Harding Davis fashion, to meddle with destiny, and to try to rewrite the tragedy.
The crazy mob broke into the palace of the Tuileries and hazed the distracted King. He donned the red cap of insurrection, waved his wooden sword, and cheered his tormentors. There was no time to be lost, so Gouverneur Morris devised a plan. The King and the Queen were to make an escape. The Swiss Guard—that faithful and formidable company—left Courbevoie to cover the retreat. The route was planned to the last detail through the forest of Ardennes and the principality of Beaumont.
In camp there lay the Marquis de Lafayette, known to the Minister of old, reliable as Ajax.
The vacillation and inherited perversity of
