Good, terse examination of Louis XVI's attempted escape to Belgium. Tackett is at his best in the description of the actual event (the mechanics of the surreptitious departure would make a very good movie). He paints a successful psychological portrait of the King, less so of Marie Antoinette, and none at all of people like Fersen, Madame Elisabeth or any of the other passengers on the flight. He gives a detailed treatment of the return to Paris by the royals after their capture at Varennes.Tackett makes the case that the King's attempt to flee the Revolution cost him his throne. He is convincing, but I am not sure he gives credit to Louis' insights that caused him to make the effort to escape, i.e. that the movement was spiraling into disorder. In any event, the event cost Louis most of his popular support as the "Father of His Country". Two years later, nearly all of the passengers in the berline that fateful night were dead, executed during the Terror. Almost lost in the narrative are the figures of Madame Royale and the Dauphin (the hapless servants, abused all the way back to Paris, get more sympathetic treatment). As with Nicholas and Alexandra, it is difficult to sympathize with the King and Queen, whose failure to protect their children parallels that of the Tsar and Tsarina. Alexandra kept a picture of Marie Antoinette in her boudoir, but the example right before her eyes did not save the imperial children.
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