Jean-Baptiste Drouet

Birth: 1763

Death: 1824

Occupation: Postmaster

Drouet, a postmaster in the village of Sainte-Menehould, was the first person to recognise the king during his failed attempt to escape Paris with the rest of the royal family in June 1791. The story goes that he did this by comparing him to the king's profile handily reproduced on a fifty-livre assignat (Revolutionary paper money) he had in his pocket. Drouet alerted his municipality, and the king's convoy was chased down at Varennes, fifteen miles further north.

Wikipedia

Jean-Baptiste_Drouet_(revolutionary)

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Appears in these Letters:

1791

30 June: Capture at Varennes: The Humiliation of a King

Here the duchess sifts through the wreckage of the royal family's thwarted attempt to escape Paris in June 1791. Before leaving on what would become...

1793

31 July: Revolutionary Justice in the summer of 1793

The duchess offers news and personal reflections on recent developments in the French Revolution (as seen from her home in the heart of the capital)...

Portrait of Drouet in 1791, published with a caption reporting his role in the Flight to Varennes

[Source: Wikipedia]