The period from the transfer of the king to Paris (October 1789) to his attempted escape (June 1791) is one of the quietest in the Revolution: the ‘initial tumults’ are over; constitution-making is in progress, with much talk of the English example; the principal events that were to be thought of as the ‘horrors of the Revolution’, the September massacres, execution of the King and Queen, the Reign of Terror – all are in the future.
