ten at night
About sunrise they passed , in the wood of Bondy , a poor herb-man , with his ass and panniers of greens . When the hue and cry began , this herb-man told of the fine new berlin he had seen in the wood of Bondy ; and thus set pursuers upon their track . Besides the eight horses wanted for the two carriages , there were more for the three body-guards , mounted and dressed as couriers , but knowing nothing about courier 's business , as the people along the road must have found out , while watching the changing of eleven horses at the different stages . Then the berlin wanted some repairs , and this detained them at Etoges : and the king would get out , and walk up the hills , and they had to wait for him : so that though they gave double money to the drivers to get on fast , they had gone only sixty-nine miles by ten at night . This slowness ruined everything . The Duke de Choiseul , Count Fersen 's friend , had left Paris ten hours before the royal family , and was waiting , with a party of hussars , at a village , some way beyond Chalons . If the party had kept their time , they would have met their guard , and , finding more and more soldiers all along the road , would have been safe .