"On a June night in 1791, King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette fled Paris in disguise, hoping to escape the mounting turmoil of the French Revolution. They were arrested by a small group of citizens a few miles from the frontier and forced to return to Paris. Two years later, they would both die at the guillotine. Through this extraordinary story, and the events leading up to and away from it, Timothy Tackett recounts in gripping novelistic style the dynamics and trajectory of the French Revolution." "The king's flight opens a window to the whole of French society. Each chapter spotlights the drama as it was experienced by a different segment of the population: from the great orators of the National Assembly to the Revolutionary officials and national guardsmen of small-town France; from Louis and Marie-Antoinette - and Marie's Swedish lover - to the ordinary men and women of Paris passionately committed to transforming their world. Tackett shows how Louis's flight reshaped popular attitudes toward kingship, intensified fears of invasion and conspiracy, and helped pave the way for the Reign of Terror."--Jacket.