Too late--for the king had already too far sanctioned the Revolution, to turn suddenly against it without appearing to betray his people and give himself the lie; too soon--for the constitution which the National Assembly was drawing up was not yet completed, the government was not yet pronounced powerless; and the foes of the king and his family were not yet so decidedly menaced that the care of his safety as a man should surpass his duties as a king.

In case of success, Louis XVI.

had none but foreign forces to recover his kingdom; in case of arrest, he found only a prison in his palace.

On which side soever we view it, flight was fatal--it was the road to shame or to the scaffold.

There is but one route by which to flee a throne and not to die--abdication.