Flight to Varennes
At time of the arrest of Louis XVI and the royal family during the Flight to Varennes, Barnave was one of the three appointed to bring them back to Paris, together with Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve and the Charles César de Fay de La Tour-Maubourg. During the journey, he began to feel compassion for queen Marie-Antoinette and the royal family, and subsequently attempted to do what he could to alleviate their sufferings. In one of his most powerful speeches, he maintained the inviolability of the king's person.