A friend of Marie-Antoinette (Lady Atkyns)

by Frédéric Barbey

On September 28, 1795, there arrived at Hamburg, Citoyen Charles-Frédéric Reinhard, official representative of the Convention, formerly head of a department in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Paris. There could be no mistake about the nature of the instructions with which this personage was provided. If the condition of the commercial relations between the two states was the official pretext for his embassy, an investigation into the affairs of the émigrés was its real object. The Senate of the town were quick to realize this. However, Reinhard’s conciliatory bearing and his expressed dislike for the police duties imposed upon him by the Directoire prevented his mission from having too uncompromising an aspect. He could not shut his eyes, of course, to what was going on, and, in spite of his repugnance to such methods, he was forced to employ some of the tale-bearers and spies always numerous among the émigrés. In a short period a complete system of espionage was organized. It did not attain to the state of perfection secured by Bourienne later under the direction of Fouché, but its existence was enough to enhance the uneasiness of the Hamburg Senate. Their refusal to acquiesce in certain steps taken by the Directoire forced Reinhard to quit the town previously, in the month of February, and to take up his abode at Bremen, afterwards at Altona. This suburb of Hamburg, separated from it only by an arm of the river, was yet outside the limits of the little republic, and suited his purpose excellently as a place from which to conduct his observations. Everything that went on in Hamburg was known there within a few hours.

It was at this period that Reinhard received a visit from a somewhat sinister individual, named Colleville, who came to offer his services to the Directoire. He volunteered to keep Reinhard informed as to the doings of the émigrés, to whom he had easy access. On March 5, 1796, he turned up with a lengthy document containing a wealth of particulars regarding one of the principal agents of the princes—no other than our friend d’Auerweck, for the moment a long way from Hamburg, but soon expected back. “He is one of the best-informed men to be met anywhere,” Colleville reports. “He has travelled a great deal, and is au courant with the feeling of the various courts and ministers.”

It must be admitted that the spy was well informed as to the character and record of the “little Baron.” D’Auerweck would seem in intimate relations with a certain Pictet, “Windham’s man.” Through him he was in correspondence with Verona. He was known to be the “friend of the Baron de Wimpfen and of a M. de Saint-Croix, formerly Lieutenant-General in the Bayeux district. In his report upon d’Auerweck, Colleville had occasion inevitably to mention his friend Cormier. He stated, in fact, that at the moment d’Auerweck was located at Mme. Cormier’s house in Paris in the Rue Basse-du-Rempart.

Colleville could not have begun his work better. D’Auerweck was not unknown to Reinhard, who, five months before, in a letter to Delacroix, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, had mentioned the fact of his presence in London, “where he was in frequent touch with du Moustier and the former minister Montciel.”

By a curious coincidence, on the same day that Reinhard got his information, the Minister of Police in Paris, the Citoyen Cochon, had been made aware that a congress of émigrés was shortly to be held at Hamburg. The agent who sent him this announcement drew his attention at the same time to the presence at Hamburg of a person named Cormier.

“It should be possible to find out through him the names of those who will be taking part in the Congress. He is a magistrate of Rennes who has been continually mixed up in intrigue. His wife has remained in Paris.... The correspondence of this Cormier ought to be amusing, for he is daring and has esprit.”

Reference is made in the same communication to “the baron Varweck, a Hungarian, passing himself off as an American, living in Paris for the past five months.”

This was enough to arouse the attention of the Directoire. The persistence with which the two names reappeared proved that their efforts had not slackened. By force of what circumstances had they been drawn into the great intrigue against the Revolutionary Party? It is difficult to say. For some months past Cormier’s letters to Lady Atkyns had been gradually becoming fewer, at last to cease altogether. Having lost all hope in regard to the affair of the Temple, the ex-magistrate, placing trust in the general belief as to what had happened, came to the conclusion that it was vain to attempt to penetrate further into the mystery, and he decided to place his services at the disposal of the Princes.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs lost no time about sending instructions to Reinhard, charging him to keep a sharp watch on the meeting of the émigrés and to learn the outcome of their infamous manœuvres. He should get Colleville, moreover, to establish relations with Cormier, “that very adroit and clever individual.” In the course of a few days Reinhard felt in a position to pull the strings of his system of espionage.

Two very different parties were formed among the émigrés at Hamburg. That of the “Old Royalists,” or of the “ancien régime,” would hear of nothing but the restoration of the ancient monarchy; that of the “new régime” felt that it was necessary, in order to reinstate the monarchy, to make concessions to Republican ideas. Cormier would seem to have belonged to the former, of which he was the only enterprising member. His brother-in-law, Butler, kept on the move between Paris and Boulogne, and Calais and Dunkirk, with letters and supplies of money from England. D’Auerweck had left Paris now and was in England, eager to join Cormier at Hamburg, but prevented by illness.