Editing Flight to Varennes (section)

== Discovery and arrest ==
[[File:Jean Baptiste Drouet.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Jean-Baptiste Drouet (French revolutionary)|Jean-Baptiste Drouet]], who reported the royal family]]
[[Image:France-500Livres-1790-uni.jpg|thumb|150px|Drouet recognized the King, perhaps due to his profile on an [[assignat]]]]
Due to the cumulative effect of slow progression, time miscalculations, lack of secrecy, and the need to repair broken coach traces,<ref>{{cite book|first=Monro|last=Price|pages=173–175|title=The Fall of the French Monarchy|year=2003|isbn=0-330-48827-9}}</ref> the royal family was thwarted in its escape attempt after leaving Paris. Louis XVI himself chatted with peasants while horses were being changed at [[Fromentières, Marne|Fromentières]] and Marie Antoinette gave silver dishes to a local official at Chaintrix. At [[Châlons-en-Champagne|Châlons]], townspeople reportedly greeted and applauded the royal party. Finally, [[Jean-Baptiste Drouet (French revolutionary)|Jean-Baptiste Drouet]], the postmaster of [[Sainte-Menehould]], recognized the King, perhaps from his portrait printed on an [[assignat]] in his possession.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k40773x/f3.image |title=Récit fait par M. Drouet, maître de poste à Ste Menehould, de la manière dont il a reconnu le Roi, et a été cause de son arrestation à Varennes: honneurs rendus à ce citoyen et à deux de ses camarades |last1=Drouet |first1=Jean-Baptiste |year=1791 |website=Gallica |publisher=Bibliothèque nationale de France |access-date=2014-03-28 |series=Les archives de la Révolution française}}</ref> Seven detachments of cavalry posted along the intended route had been withdrawn or neutralised by suspicious crowds before the royal party had reached them. The King and his family were eventually stopped and arrested in the town of [[Varennes-en-Argonne]], 50 km (31 miles) from their ultimate destination, the fortified royalist citadel of [[Montmédy]].<ref name="auto"/>

Whether Bouillé's army would have been numerous or reliable enough to change the direction of the Revolution and preserve the monarchy can never be known.<ref>{{cite book|first=Monro|last=Price|page=187|title=The Fall of the French Monarchy|year=2003|isbn=0-330-48827-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Christopher J.|last=Tozzi|page=63|title=Nationalizing France's Army|year=2016|publisher=University of Virginia Press |isbn=9780813938332}}</ref>