first, the only persons out of Paris who were let into the secret.

The Baron de Breteuil alone, of all the old ministers, enjoyed the confidence of the King and Queen, and corresponded in their name with foreign powers, while he was at Soleure. He was even charged, several times, to communicate to the Count d'Artois the intentions of the King his brother, and this did not by any means please the Count d'Artois, and still less M. de Calonne. It was he, also, who, having seen M. de Calonne in Switzerland, and penetrated into his design of going to Vienna, promptly dispatched a courier to the Prince de Kaunitz, to prevent his being received at that court; and the result was, that M. de Calonne was obliged to go back the way he had come, after having arrived at the last post from Vienna. If the King had succeeded in his plan of going to Montmédy, it was determined not to permit M. de Calonne to approach his person; nor would the King or Queen have employed him in any manner. Two months before his disgrace, he had attempted to gain over

the King's confessor to get at his Majesty's secrets. The confessor acquainted the King with this fact, on the express condition that he should mention it to no person but the Queen. In the month of October, 1789, the King of France had advised the King of Spain to pay no regard to any public act promulgated in his name, unless confirmed by a letter under his own hand.

If the King had gained the frontiers, the Marquis de Bouillé was forthwith to have been declared Marshal of France, and to have taken the command of the allied army. The Marquis told me himself that, of all the troops under his command in Lorraine, he could rely only on the foreign corps; but the Emperor was to support the King with 40,000 men, 14,000 of whom were to have been in the neighbourhood of Montmédy at the moment of the King's flight. This body, however, was not there. The King of Spain was to furnish 15,000 foot and 4,000 cavalry, and to give five millions in silver; the King of Sardinia was to send 15,000 men to the confederate army; the

Swiss 20,000; and the King of Sweden engaged to land 16,000 at Ostend.

In a letter to the King of England, the King of Sweden asked whether his Majesty (in the case of the Court of London observing a neutrality as to England) would not, as Elector of Hanover, engage to furnish 12,000 men to be paid by the French Princes.

The object of the mission of M. **** to London was to inform the English government that M. de Calonne was not authorized to act in the name of the King of France, and to persuade the Court of St. James to declare in favour of His Most Christian Majesty, or if resolved to remain neuter, to engage the King of Prussia and the Dutch to join the Emperor and the Princes of Germany. One proof that the Baron de Breteuil, and not M. de Calonne, was the secret spring that moved the Emperor and the other Princes, in favour of the King of France, is, that when they had put themselves in motion, they neither communicated their plans, nor the proposed

means of success, to the French Princes. The assistance of the foreign powers was then conditionally agreed upon, in the case of the King's escape. The Court of Vienna had resolved to prosecute the most vigorous measures from that moment, provided the Court of London guaranteed the concurrence of the King of Prussia; for the Emperor would not consent to put his troops in motion, unless the King of Prussia did the same.

M. de Fersen went to Vienna, in August, 1791, on the part of the King and Queen of France, to concert with the Emperor the means of bringing into the field the aid to be given by him, in case the King of Prussia could be induced to join the confederates; and the Emperor's minister at London was to assure that Court, that his Imperial Majesty would take the most prompt measures for the restoration of the French monarchy, if the King of Prussia sincerely joined in the confederacy.

The Count de Mercy arrived at London on the 18th of August, to confirm the communications of M. ****; and he had se

veral conferences with Mr. Pitt and the other English ministers.

I received also, from M. **** and the Marquis de Bouillé, accurate details of the arrest of Louis XVI. at Varennes. The Duke de Choiseul was, in part, the cause of it, although very innocently, and merely from too much zeal. The secret of the flight had been committed to him, and he was dispatched on the 19th of June to M. de Bouillé, to inform him of all the circumstances of the departure of the King and Queen. M. de Bouillé gave him the command of an escort, which was to meet their Majesties on the road. Being arrived at St. Menéhoud and Châlons, he was extremely uneasy and agitated at not seeing them approach, when the time appointed for their being there had passed. Having waited some hours, he mounted his horse; he proceeded several leagues to meet the treasure which he said he had come to escort, and which was destined to pay the troops in Lorraine. He appeared so greatly disconcerted at the delay, that the inhabitants conceived suspicions, which led them