On the 14th of December, M. X. called on me, in order, as he said, to gain some information relative to some lands in * * *, purchased by * * *, for whom * * *. Soon afterwards, General Marshall came in, and then Mr. Gerry's carriage drove into the yard. Here is Mr. Gerry, said General Marshall. I am glad of it, said M. X., for I wished to meet all of you gentlemen, to inform you that M. Y. had another message to you from M. Talleyrand. I immediately expressed my surprise at it, as M. Talleyrand, M. Y., and he, all knew our determination to have no further communication on the subject of our mission with persons not officially authorized. He replied, that determination was made six weeks ago; and it was presumed that we had changed our opinion. I said that I had not, and I did not believe my colleagues had. At that moment Mr. Gerry entered the room, and I privately acquainted him with the object of M. X.'s visit. General Marshall, Mr. Gerry, and myself, then withdrew into another room, and immediately agreed to adhere to our former resolution. M. X. was then called in; when I acquainted him, in a few words, with our determination; and Mr. Gerry expatiated more at large on the propriety of our acting in this manner, and on the very unprecedented way in which we had been treated since our arrival.
On the 20th of December, a lady, who is well acquainted with M. Talleyrand, expressed to me her concern that we were still in so unsettled a situation; but, adds she, why will you not lend us money? If you would but make us a loan, all matters would be adjusted; and, she added, when you were contending for your revolution, we lent you money. I mentioned the very great difference there was between the situation of the two countries at that period and the present, and the very different circumstances under which the loan was made us, and the loan was now demanded from us. She replied, we do not make a demand; we think it more delicate that the offer should come from you: but M. Talleyrand has mentioned to me (who am surely not in his confidence) the necessity of your making us a loan; and I know that he has mentioned it to two or three others; and that you have been informed of it; and I will assure you that, if you remain here six months longer, you would not advance a single step further in your negotiations without a loan. If that is the case, I replied, we may as well go away now. Why that, possibly, said she, might lead to a rupture, which you had better avoid; for we know we have a very considerable party in America, who are strongly in our interest.
The American Envoys having repulsed all these attempts, and refused to listen longer to these intermediaries, two of them (Messrs. Pinckney and Marshall) were furnished with their passports, and left France. Mr. Gerry remained, and underwent many attempts to be inveigled into a separate negotiation, all of which failed. In the mean time, (for half a year had now been consumed in this intrigue,) the despatches of the American Ministers had become public, exciting every where odium upon the Directorial Government. The occasion required them to say something, which Talleyrand undertook, and had the "unparalleled effrontery," as expressed by Mr. Pickering, to affect ignorance of the whole affair, to demand the names of the enigmatical personages, (X., Y., Z.,) and of the "woman" that reinforced them; and to pronounce the whole the imposture of some intriguers taking advantage of the state of isolation in which the Ministers lived to try and wheedle them out of money. Upon this disavowal, Mr. Pickering remarks:
Although the Envoys' despatches, and the facts and circumstances hereinbefore stated, cannot leave a doubt that X., as well as Y. and Z., was well known to Mr. Talleyrand, it will not be amiss to add, that on the 2d of December, X., Y., and Z., dined together at Mr. Talleyrand's, in company with Mr. Gerry; and that, after rising from the table, the money propositions, which had before been made, were repeated, in the room and in the presence, though, perhaps, not in the hearing, of Mr. Talleyrand. Mr. X. put the question to Mr. Gerry in direct terms, either "whether the Envoys would now give the douceur," or "whether they had got the money ready." Mr. Gerry, very justly offended, answered positively in the negative, and the conversation dropped.
Mr. Z., who has avowed himself to be Mr. Hauteval, was the person who first made known to the Envoys the Minister's desire to confer with them individually on the objects of their mission. He it was who first introduced Mr. Gerry to Mr. Talleyrand, and served as the interpreter of their conversations; and in his letter to Mr. Talleyrand, at the close of Mr. Gerry's document, No. 35, he announces himself to be the agent of the Minister, to make communications to the Envoys.
The sensation which these details irresistibly excite is that of astonishment at the unparalleled effrontery of Mr. Talleyrand, in demanding of Mr. Gerry the names of X., Y., and Z., after Y. had accompanied him on a visit to the Minister, with whom the conversation detailed in the printed despatches then passed, and who then assured Mr. Gerry "that the information Mr. Y. had given him was just, and might always be relied on;" after Z. had in the first instance introduced Mr. Gerry to the Minister, and served as their mutual interpreter, and when the conversation between them had also been stated in despatches; and after X., Y., and Z. had all dined together with Mr. Gerry at Mr. Talleyrand's table, on rising from which X. and Y. renewed the proposition about the money! The very circumstances of Mr. Talleyrand's being continued in office after the account of these intrigues had been published to the world is a decisive proof that they were commenced and carried on with the privity and by the secret orders of the Directory. It was to accomplish the object of these intrigues that the American Envoys were kept at Paris unreceived six months after their credentials had been laid before the Directory; and it was only because they were superior to those intrigues, and that no hopes remained of wheedling or terrifying them into a compliance, that two of them were then sent away, and with marks of insult and contempt.
The Directory at that time were: Barras, Merlin, Siéyes, Gohier, and Roger Ducos,—whose government Buonaparte soon after overthrew, and drove the two first from France, with the epithet "rotten" applied to them. The American Ministers were censured by some of their contemporaries for listening to these subaltern agents, but they had valid reasons for their conduct: first, to avoid the further threatened depredations on American commerce; and next, to unite their fellow-citizens at home by exposing the corruption of the (then) French Government.