This is the plan whose execution is possible and probable, if every
thing is strictly followed. Before the affair is discovered, there
will be at least seven hours' advantage and the royal family will be
able, with the passes already secured by M. Jarjayes, to be a long
way off before their flight will be discovered by Tison. In a secure
house, whither Toulan will lead them, the royal family will find
simple citizen's clothing. Without exciting any stir, and
accompanied by Messieurs Jarjayes and Toulan, they will reach
Normandy. A packet-boat furnished by an English friend lies in
readiness to receive the royal family and take them to their--' "
"Good-day, Madame Tison!" cried the dauphin loudly, "good-day, my
dear Madame Tison!"
Madame Elizabeth hastily concealed the paper in her bosom, and Marie
Antoinette had scarcely time to hide the ball of thread in her
pocket, when Tison appeared upon the threshold of the door, looked
with her sharp lynx-eyes around, and then fixed them upon the two
ladies.
She saw that Marie Antoinette did not display her accustomed
dignified calmness, and that Elizabeth's pale cheeks were unusually
red.
"Something is going on," said the spy to herself, "and what does it
mean that to-day the commissaries are not in the anteroom, and that
they let these women carry on their chattering entirely unwatched?"
"Madame has been reading?" asked Tison, subjecting every object upon
the table before which the ladies were sitting, to a careful
scrutiny.
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