23. Von Fersen Drove Marie Antoinette Out of Revolutionary Paris
Count Axel von Fersen had carriages placed near the Tuileries Palace, where the royal family was kept under guard. At 11:15 PM on the night of June 20th, 1791, the royal children were brought out. Half an hour later, the king and his sister, Madame Elizabeth, followed. It took Marie Antoinette a bit longer to join them. Just as she was about to leave, the Marquis de Lafayette, who was in charge of the palace guard, showed up in a torchlit carriage. Von Fersen’s love had to hide in the darkness until Lafayette went on his way before she was able to join the rest of her family.
Behind in the Tuileries Palace, King Louis XVI left a document addressed to the National Assembly. In it, he declared his intention to roll the clock back to the royal concessions granted in 1789, before the French Revolution began. In private correspondence, Marie Antoinette took an even more reactionary line and declared an intention to return to the old order, without any concessions at all. Von Fersen personally drove the carriage that contained his love and her family to a spot a few miles from Paris. There, Marie Antoinette’s maids awaited, along with fresh horses to whisk the royals to safety.