She entertains him with an account of the steps she is taking. Little by little her money will be exhausted; but what matter provided she succeeds? Not content with seeing her gold dispensed at Paris by her paid supporters, the generous Englishwoman has made up her mind to acquire a ship which she has had secured for herself by an émigré, the Baron de Suzannet, and which had been entirely rigged out at her expense.[71] This vessel plies continually between the English coast and the continent, after January, 1794; her captain is instructed to communicate by means of signs agreed upon with people stationed along the French coast, generally at Dieppe. In this way news can always be conveyed from Paris, while the ship will be ready at the right moment to pick up the young Dauphin and carry him off into security.
This was the condition of things at the beginning of 1794, when, on Monday, March 24, Cormier received a piece of news which at first unbalanced him. His wife had been arrested in Paris, and there was nothing to indicate how this mishap had come about.
“What terrible news, Madame!” he wrote to Lady Atkyns; “my wife has been arrested! I am inconsolable. I know no details as yet.”
On reflection, however, he realizes that the nature of his former duties, taken in conjunction with his present position as an émigré, suffice to account for what had taken place.
“There is every reason to believe,” he proceeds, “that nothing has been discovered regarding our plot, and that it is merely as the wife of the President of the Massiac Club that she has been put under arrest. At least, I flatter myself that this is so. If I get no news here, I shall set out for the place where news will be forthcoming soonest. Nothing will ever make me abandon our project and the object of our desires. You shall have my news at the earliest possible moment, either from here or from Choram.”
Now, on this very day Hébert was mounting the scaffold, a victim to the accusations of Robespierre, whose despotism was triumphant. He who had been to a great extent responsible for looking after Louis XVII. had now fallen in his turn, to be followed a few weeks later (April 13) by his friend Chaumette. Here is what Cormier had to say on the subject—the news had reached him with wonderful speed—
“Robespierre has triumphed over the others, and he has had Hébert, Vincent, etc., arrested and guillotined. Robespierre had declared himself anxious to stop the flow of blood ...; he had spoken up for the prisoners in the Temple. Fresh letters are arriving here. It is certain, I think, that my wife has not yet been charged with anything, or even suspected of anything in regard to the prisoners.”
The event was inopportune. Cormier had just decided to leave London for the coast, where he was to receive certain information and to take counsel with his agents. Now his plans were all upset. He would have to postpone the journey and redouble his precautions.
At the end of five days there was ground for taking a hopeful view of things. There was every reason to believe that Mme. Cormier’s arrest would not have any grave results.
“What annoys me most,” writes Cormier to Lady Atkyns on March 28, “is the fact that the news had got back to Paris, with commentaries which may do harm both to my wife and to our affairs.”