Drouet was the means of the king's destruction: if he had not recognised the monarch from his resemblance with his portrait on the assignats--if he had not rode with all speed, and reached Varennes before the carriages, in two hours more the king and his family must have been saved.

Drouet, this obscure son of a post-master, sauntering and idle that evening before the door of a cottage, decided the fate of a monarchy.

He took the advice of no one but himself--he set off, saying, "I will arrest the king." But Drouet would not have had this decisive impulse if, at this moment, as it were, he had not personified in himself all the agitation and all the suspicions of the people.

It was the fanaticism of his country which impelled him, unknown to himself, to Varennes, and which urged him to sacrifice a whole family of fugitives to what he believed to be the safety of the nation.
He had not received instructions from anyone; he took upon himself alone the arrest and the death that ensued.

His devotion to his country was cruel: his silence and commiseration would have drawn down minor calamities.
As to the king himself, this flight was in him a fault if not a crime: it was too soon or too late.