Page:A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys.pdf/36



Drouet rushed into the taverns to ask if any late revellers had seen a great coach go through, revellers shook their heads, passed through Varennes. The No coach that night had Suddenly came a cry, and he looked behind him up the long hill of the Clermont road. There, on the top, were the headlights of the coach. It halted, for it was expecting Bouillé's escort. The Clermont postilions were giving trouble; they declared that they were not bound to go down the hill, for the horses were carry in the hay, needed early next morning to At last the coach started, and the creak of its brakes could be heard on the hill. Drouet ran into the inn called "' The Golden Arm," crying on every man who was for France to come out and stop the berline, since inside it was the King.

There was only one thing for him to do, to hold the bridge over the Aire. Now, at the bridgehead stood a great furniture van without horses, waiting to start for somewhere in the morning. Drouet and his handful of assistants pulled it across the bridge and blocked the approach. Meantime one Sausse, a tallow chandler and the procurator of the town, had appeared on the