The Duchess de Tourzel was Governess and accompanied the Royal Family on the flight from Varennes! These two paragraphs will give you some ideas of the treatment that Marie Antoinette and the Royal Family dealt with.
The people who surrounded the carriage of the
King made remarks to their Majesties with insolent
familiarity whenever it pleased them, and replied to
their questions with revolting vulgarity. The kind-
ness with which the royal family treated them,
and the patience with which the}'' bore the heat and
the dust, which were excessive, but only appeared to
be felt by them in relation to the suft'erings of the
young Prince and Princess, would have made an im-
pression on less hardened hearts ; but they had only
one feeling — that of rejoicing over the abasement of
the royal family, and their own triumph. It was
happiness to them to overwhelm their unfortunate
Sovereign with chagrin.
We then reached Epernay, where we were
awaited by a most excited and unbridled mob — the
authorities, inhabitants, and the National Guard
were all equally detestable. The mayor presented
the keys of the town to the King. The president
of the district, who accompanied him, allowed him-
self to utter the bitterest remonstrances to his
Majesty, and he wound up his very insolent speech
by saying that he ought to be grateful to the town
for handing its keys to a fugitive King. The crowd,
which thronged the courtyard and the house where
the King was to dine, compelled him to alight at
the door. It indulged in the most fearful remarks,
and one of these monsters was heard to say to his
neighbour, — "Hide me, so that I may fire on the
Queen without anybody knowing where the shot
comes from."
"Memoirs of the Dutchess de Tourzel, Governess to the children of France during the years 1789, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793 and 1795"