The history of these attempts is inextricably complex. Ministers’ halls and corridors were crammed with unemployed soldiers, needy nobles, agents, spies—each with a scheme more dazzling than the others. There were many adventurers who were never taken at any other valuation, and whose incessant activity deceived nobody. But there were also personages of considerable importance, and of illustrious name, who came there with undeniable reputations, and who could not easily be repulsed. In the variety of their schemes and the abundance of their offers, it is necessary to disentangle and take into consideration all kinds of secret motives, petty views, personal grudges, or even jealousies, against their compatriots. Every one wanted to act, and every one wanted the best part; and as their various rivalries displayed themselves, the general confusion increased.
One of the favourite meeting-places of this set of people was the office of Peltier, the journalist. All the news came there; they could get the latest information from France, and discuss the chances of the parties, the military operations on the frontiers, and, above all, the intentions of the British Government.
A quartette was soon formed in the office of the sometime editor of the Acts of the Apostles. It was made up of Peltier and his second in command, the Baron d’Auerweck (whom we have already met); of Cormier, and of a fourth arrival, who is no stranger to us—the Chevalier Louis de Frotté.
After his exploits at Dunkirk, the ex-officer of the Colonel-Generals had spent many months in the Army of the Emigration. Accompanied by his friend and inseparable, La Tremoïlle, he had taken part in the first campaign of 1792, under the Duke of Brunswick. The inexplicable retreat of this last with his 80,000 men, the lack of sympathy that the two officers felt with the Austrians, and the incessant squabbles that went on, disgusted them with the whole affair. They left for Italy, and reached Milan and Turin—not without adventures on the way; then, in the spring following, they re-entered Condé’s army, which was now in the Emperor’s pay.[65] Fresh vexations awaited them there—for the general Royalist rising that had been arranged to come off simultaneously at Lyons, in the South, and in the Jura, fell through in a pitiable fashion. And from La Vendée there came, on the other hand, the news of many successes by the Chouans.
Frotté made up his mind. He would go and rejoin his compatriots; he would come to France itself and fight the Revolution there. To do this, a short stay in England was indispensable. He could obtain resources there, and he had none at the moment. Who could say that he might not even be entrusted with an official command? At any rate, that was how, in the early months of 1794, the Chevalier de Couterne came to disembark at London like the rest. We shall not be surprised, knowing as we do his relations with Lady Atkyns, and her relations with Peltier and d’Auerweck, to find Frotté very quickly made free of that little circle of intimates.
His admiration for his fair friend of Lille was far from having decreased; and he now listened to the details, by her own lips, of her repeated offers for, and her unalterable devotion to, the Royal family. He even came, under her influence, to share the hopes which she, brave lady! still cherished.
FOOTNOTES:
[52] Bazouges-du-Desert, Ile-et-Vilaine, arrondissement of Fougères, district of Louvigné-du-Désert.
[53] Here is the baptismal certificate of Yves Cormier:—
“Yves-Jean-François-Marie, son of M. Yves-Gilles and Dame Marie-Anne-Françoise Egasse (alias Egace), born yesterday, baptized this day, December 8, 1740, by me the Rector undersigned; and held to the Holy Baptismal Font by M. Jean-François Cormier, Prior-Rector of Bassouge-du-Desert, and by Dame Marie-Anne Lardoul; the father being present, and others undersigned:—