“Señor,
“The letters now published in Le Moniteur show the whole world the sentiments of perfect love which I entertain for Your Imperial Majesty, and the deep desire I cherish of becoming your adopted son. The publicity which Your Imperial Majesty has deigned to give my letters makes me hope that you do not disapprove of my sentiments nor of the desire I have formed, and this hope fills me with joy.
“Permit me, sire, to confide to you the thoughts of a heart which I do not hesitate to say is worthy of your adoption. If Your Imperial Majesty would unite me to a French Princess, you would fulfil my most ardent wish. By this union, apart from my personal happiness, all Europe would be convinced of my unalterable respect for the will of Your Majesty, and it would see that you deign to make some return for such sincere feelings.
“I will venture to add that this union and the sight of my happiness will exercise a beneficial effect on the destiny of all Spain, and will rob a blind and furious people of the pretext of covering a country with blood in the name of a Prince, the eldest son of an ancient dynasty, who has, by a solemn treaty by his own choice and by the most glorious of all adoptions, made himself a French Prince and a son of Your Imperial Majesty.
“I venture to hope that such ardent wishes, and an affection so absolute, will touch the magnanimous heart of Your Majesty, and that you will deign to make me share the fate of the many Your Majesty has made happy.
“Señor, I am, etc.,
“(Signed) Ferdinand.”
Charles Leopold, Baron de Colly, an astute and intriguing youth, proposed to the Duke of Kent a plan for releasing Ferdinand from his ignoble position at Valençay by taking him on board an English man-of-war to a port of Spain.
The Duke of Kent referred the matter to his father, who sent Ferdinand two letters by the Baron. Provided with a set of passports and all papers necessary for the undertaking, besides supplies, in the form of diamonds and an open draft on the house of Maensoff and Clanoy, and a ship loaded with provisions for five months, Colly commenced operations. He reached Paris in safety, sold part of the diamonds, and began his preparations; but the police got wind of the plot through Colly’s secretary Albert, and he was promptly shut up in the Castle of Vincennes.
Fouché tried to persuade Colly to continue his work, so that Ferdinand might be caught in the act of escaping; but the Englishman preferred his prison to such treachery, and in this prison he remained until the fall of Napoleon.