No sooner was the Earl Marischal in Paris than Charles made advances to the old adherent of his family. He sent Goring post-haste to the French capital. Goring, who already knew the Earl, writes (September 20, 1731): ‘My instructions are not to let myself be seen by anybody whatever but your Lordship.’ The Earl answers on the same day: ‘If you yourself know any safe way for both of us, tell it me. There was a garden belonging to a Mousquetaire, famous for fruit, by Pique-price, beyond it some way. I could go there as out of curiosity to see the garden, and meet you to-morrow towards five o’clock; but if you know a better place, let me know it. Remember, I must go with the footmen, and remain in coach as usual, so that the garden is best, because I can say, if it came possibly to be known, that it was by chance I met you.’
‘An ambassador,’ as Sir Henry Wotton remarked, ‘is an honest man sent to lie abroad for his country,’ an observation taken very ill by Gentle King Jamie. [131]
Goring replied that the garden was too public. The night would be the surest time. Goring could wear livery, or dress as an Abbé. The Tuileries, when ‘literally dark,’ might serve. On September 23, the Earl answers, ‘One of my servants knows you since Vienna.’ Goring, as we know, had been in the Austrian service. ‘I will go to the Tuileries when it begins to grow dark, if it does not rain, for it would seem too od that I had choose to walk in rain, and my footman would suspect, and perhaps spye. I shall walk along the step or terrace before the house in the garden.’ [132a]
So difficult is it for an ambassador to dabble in treasonable intrigue, especially when old, and when the weather is wet. Let us suppose that Goring and the Earl met. Goring’s business was to ask if the Earl ‘has leave to disclose the secret that was not in his power to do, last time you saw him. I am ready to come myself, and meet him where he pleases.’
Meetings were difficult to arrange. We read, in the Prince’s hand:
To Lord M. from Goring.
‘18th Oct. 1751.
‘Saying he had received an express from the Prince with orders to tell him [Lord M.] his place of residence, and making a suggestion of meeting at Waters’s House.
‘Answer made 18th. Oct. by Lord M.
‘You may go to look for Lace as a Hamborough Merchant. I go as recommended to a Lace Shop by Mr. Waters and shall be there as it grows dark, for a pretence of staying some time in the house you may also say you are recommended by Waters.
‘Mr Vignier Marchand de Doreure rue du Route, au Soleil D’or. Paris.’
(Overleaf.)
‘18th Oct 1751.
‘I shall be glad to see you when you can find a fit place, but to know where your friend is is necessary unfit. Would Waters’s house be a good place? Would Md Talmont’s, mine is not, neither can I go privately in a hackney coach, my own footman would dogg me, here Stepan knows you well since Vienna.’ (Stepan was the Tartar valet.)
It is clear that Charles was now near Paris, and that the Ambassador of Prussia was in communication with him. What did the English Government know of this from their regular agents?
On October 9, Albemarle wrote from Paris that Charles was believed to have visited the town. His ‘disguises make it very difficult’ to discover him. Albemarle gives orders to stop a Dr. Kincade at Dover, and seize his papers. He sends a list of traffickers between England and the Prince, including Lochgarry, ‘formerly in the King’s service, and very well known; is now in Scotland.’ ‘The Young Pretender has travelled through Spain and Italy in the habit of a Dominican Fryar. He is expected soon at Avignon. He was last at Berlin and Dantzich, and has nobody with him but Mr. Goring.’ This valuable information is marked ‘Secret!’ [133a]