for Honora Sneyd. He kept his pledge to be faithful to her always.
His letters are full of the hopes and expectations of ambitious young
manhood. While in New York with Sir Henry Clinton he was a great
social favorite. Many proud young women, especially among the Tories,
would have been glad of a matrimonial alliance with the handsome
young aide-de-camp. André was human enough to appreciate and enjoy
all of this flattery, but his heart was true to the girl he met in
Litchfield. When the three farmers arrested him they stripped him—as
they thought—of all he possessed, but he managed to keep the portrait
of Miss Sneyd, which he always carried about his person, by concealing
it in his mouth. He thought of her to the last.
And the pathos of it all lay in the fact that he expired in ignorance
of the fact that she had died in London, two months before.
VI
THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF THE CHEVALIER D’EON AT THE RUSSIAN COURT
The Chevalier D’Eon was not a military spy in the ordinary sense of the
term, but his secret mission to the Russian Court, in the disguise of
a woman, was the direct means of reëstablishing diplomatic relations
between Russia and France and of preventing England from obtaining the
services of 60,000 Russian soldiers to be used whenever the emergency
might require them.
Charles Genevieve Louis Auguste Andre Timothee D’Eon de Beaumont was
the full name of this curious character who took part in one of the
most remarkable adventures in the history of war, politics or diplomacy.
Before he appeared on the scene Chancellor Bestuzhev of the Russian
Ministry and the English and Austrian Ambassadors had been engaged in
a long and perplexing negotiation which was expected to end in a new
treaty between Russia and England. His English Majesty, King George II,
was haunted by the fear that France and Prussia had designs on Hanover.
To prevent this he wished to make an alliance against these countries
with Russia and Austria. Empress Elizabeth of Russia did not display
much interest in the proposition, but her Chancellor, Bestuzhev, was
eager to consummate the plan because he had no love for the King of
Prussia and believed that any extensions of that monarch’s kingdom
would be detrimental to Russia.
Bestuzhev’s scheme was to raise 60,000 recruits who were to be placed
at the service of England in return for a subsidy which was placed at
five hundred thousand pounds. This was in January, 1755; but between
the desire of the English cabinet to reduce the amount of the subsidy
and the indifference of the Russian Empress, the affair dragged along
for many months. Indeed, the patience of the English ambassador—Guy
Dickens—was so sorely tried that he resigned in a huff and was
succeeded by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, one of the most notable men
of the period, who determined to distinguish himself by bringing about
the alliance which his predecessor at St. Petersburg had failed to
accomplish.
Lord Holderness, the English Foreign Secretary, gave the new Ambassador
to Russia minute directions concerning what he was expected to do at
St. Petersburg. In a letter dated April 11, 1755, he said among other
things: “On this occasion it will be proper to convince the Russians
that they will remain only an Asiatic power if they sit still and
give the King of Prussia an opportunity of putting into execution his
ambitious, dangerous and long-concerted schemes of aggrandizement. His
Majesty has authorized you, by your full powers and instructions, to do
what may be necessary for preventing such a calamity.”
The new Ambassador went to work with great energy and if the private
letters and memoirs of the time are to be credited he soon found that
he was engaged in a most expensive undertaking. Nearly everybody about
the Russian Court wanted money and wanted it badly. Ten thousand
pounds, it is stated, besides “the usual diplomatic presents” were
given to the Chancellor. “An extraordinary gift” was made to the
Vice Chancellor. After that the Secretary to the Cabinet had to be
considered and a letter to London said that this person could be
obtained “for fifteen hundred ducats ready money, and five hundred
per annum pension.” But the money grabbers did not end here, for the
bribery continued all along the line.
As a climax to this wholesale palm greasing, a convention was signed on
the 9th of August, 1755, the chief feature of which was that Russia’s
aid to England should extend to all the allies of King George and that
on the first demand for help from England, Russia would march 30,000
men against Prussia. This arrangement was to be ratified two months
from the date of signing, but in the meantime was not to be binding.
Such were the methods of diplomacy 160 years ago! Is it surprising that
the word at that time should come to have a shady meaning?
But unexpectedly an obstacle arose. Louis XV of France wished to renew
diplomatic intercourse with the Court of Elizabeth. The Empress was
favorable to this but her ministers knew that if it were accomplished
the new treaty with England would be “merely a scrap of paper”—that it
would be consigned to the waste basket.
Every attempt on the part of the French authorities to communicate
with her was frustrated. Presently a Frenchman, the Chevalier de
Valcroissant, appeared in St. Petersburg. His mission was to ascertain
the feelings of the Russian Court toward the French monarch. He
found out sooner than he expected, and in a way he did not relish.
Charged with being a spy, he was arrested and shut in the fortress of
Schlosselburg. Louis XV was furious but helpless. France did not have
the power to protest against this proceeding because Valcroissant was
not an accredited agent; he had only been sent as a private emissary to
get the lay of the land.
Louis XV was not the sort of a man to abandon an enterprise. He
considered how he could penetrate the barrier of diplomats and spies
who were surrounding the Empress Elizabeth. And suddenly he thought of
the man to accomplish this seemingly impossible feat.
It was the Chevalier D’Eon.
[Illustration: THE CHEVALIER D’EON]
This talented young man, who had written a pamphlet on the financial
condition of France under Louis XIV, had gained the friendship of the
king and was in the Secret Service of his country. He had distinguished
himself as a soldier at an early age, and was noted for the success
with which he had performed several confidential missions.
It was decided that he should go to Russia with the Chevalier Douglass,
and that he should go in female attire. Douglass was to leave France
quietly on the pretext of traveling for his health and his supposed
woman companion was to be represented as his niece. Above all he was
not to have any communication with any French officials whether in
France or during the course of his travels.
His instructions were given in great detail. He was to enter Germany
though Sweden, and to pass into Bohemia on the plea of examining
its mines. On reaching St. Petersburg he was directed to make the
acquaintance of any persons who might be able to help him in his
enterprise. Among other things he had orders to ascertain the influence
which was exerted over Elizabeth by her favorites and to send this
information from time to time to Louis XV. No letters were to be posted
in the ordinary way, but all negotiations were to be reported by means
of a cipher code which was to be forwarded to private addresses in
Paris.
The Chevalier D’Eon entered into the affair with much enthusiasm. His
appearance easily lent itself to the disguise of a female. He was small
and slight and had a pink and white complexion and his expression
was gentle. A sweet voice helped to make his disguise complete. This
exploit of the notorious adventurer afterwards gave him an unwelcome
fame which he was never able to live down, although history proves that
he was a brave soldier and had many manly qualifications. His defense
for the remarkable escapade was love of country, a taste for adventure
and the fact that a spy must do many things that would be distasteful
to a soldier.
Before D’Eon left Paris he was given a copy of a French novel, which
had concealed between the boards of its binding a letter from Louis XV
to the Empress Elizabeth. It also contained a cipher which the Empress
and her Vice Chancellor Woronzoff were to use in corresponding with
the French king. It is a significant fact that this volume never left
the possession of the young adventurer. He read it on all occasions—in
his room at hotels and even while he waited for an audience with the
officials of the Russian Court. Is it any wonder that he gained the
reputation of being an omnivorous novel reader?
The little drama began when the Chevalier Douglass arrived at Anhalt
and stopped at one of the hotels to await the arrival of his delightful
niece. She arrived in due time, did Mademoiselle Lia de Beaumont, and
made an immediate and favorable impression on all with whom she came
in contact. Such charm! Such shyness! Such modesty and at the same
time such sprightliness! Is it any wonder that Douglass and his young
relative at once gained the attention of the best society of the place?
They were pressed to make a long stay at Anhalt, but declined on the
ground that it was necessary to proceed to the capital.
In St. Petersburg they stayed at the house of Monsieur Michael, the
French banker, who was a man of eminence in the Russian city. One of
the first persons to meet Douglass was the Austrian Ambassador. He was
curious about the new arrivals.
“What are you doing in this country?” he asked.
The wily courier of the king was seized with a fit of coughing and at
its conclusion replied:
“I am here by the advice of my physician, in order to get the benefit
of a cold climate.”
All the while the real purposes of Chevalier Douglass were in
microscopic characters on the sheet of thin paper concealed in the
false bottom of a tortoise shell snuff box. Every time he took a pinch
of snuff he thought of his mission. Also he was sure that if he should
be suspected and searched that the snuff box would escape attention and
confiscation. But as the days went by the charming niece was seized
with a desire to see the Empress, not in a public, but in a private
audience.
How was this to be accomplished?
The French banker who was acting as host to the queer couple was
acquainted with the Vice Chancellor, who had no love for the
Chancellor. So he invited the first named personage to his house
to meet Douglass and his “adorable niece.” The Vice Chancellor was
delighted with the newcomers and readily agreed to present the niece
privately to the Empress.
The meeting took place in one of the large rooms of the palace and as
soon as they were alone the fascinating young woman exclaimed:
“Your Majesty, I am not what I seem. I am the Chevalier D’Eon sent to
you as the special messenger of Louis XV. It was necessary to come to
you in this guise to outwit your court officers who were determined
that no message from the King should reach you.”
At first amazed, the Empress afterwards felt flattered that such
extraordinary means should be employed to obtain her attention, and
she made the supposed female sit down and tell her the story of how
the ruse had been planned and executed. After that D’Eon told of the
desire of the King to resume diplomatic relations with the Russian
Court. Her Majesty was greatly flattered. The manner in which she had
been approached appealed to her imagination, and she agreed that the
deception of her ministers should be continued. In order that the
scheme might be facilitated, she appointed D’Eon her reader, which not
only gave him a reason for being about the Court, but also furnished
him with ready access to her at all times.
In a very short time she gave him a written statement in which she
expressed a willingness to receive and to accord “respectful treatment
for any envoy of the King of France who would bring with him sufficient
powers to sign a treaty.” With this precious paper in his possession
Douglass hastened to Paris to give it to the King. D’Eon, in the
meantime, remained in St. Petersburg in order to see that there were
no unexpected developments that would militate against King Louis
XV. There can be no doubt but that it was the secret influence which
Douglass and D’Eon had with the Empress which led her to neglect the
treaty with England which the Chancellor had fully expected her to sign.
“I am sorry to say,” writes the English Ambassador to Lord Holderness,
“that it is impossible for the Chancellor to get her Majesty to put
her signature to the treaty which we so much desire. He appears to be
very much in awe of her.” Little did the diplomats suspect that their
carefully laid plans had been upset by the “charming niece” of the
Chevalier Douglass.
In the meantime other events were occurring in other parts of the world
which served to make still further impossible the thing which England
had so ardently desired. King George had become alarmed over the
unexpected delay and entered into a defensive alliance with the King of
Prussia. By this the Prussian monarch agreed to defend Hanover. This
treaty was signed at Westminster on January 16, 1756. The news was sent
to the English Ambassador at St. Petersburg, who promptly communicated
it to the Chancellor Bestuzhev.
That aged, if not venerable, diplomat swore violently. And little
wonder, for it meant that his long-sought scheme to humiliate Frederick
of Prussia and to gain England as an ally, had collapsed. After he had
partially recovered his self-possession he exclaimed:
“This union between England and Prussia will be bitter news to her
Imperial Majesty.”
“Why so?” replied the innocent English Ambassador. “Such an alliance
can offend no one but France.”
In the meantime the treaty between England and Russia was still
regarded as a desirable thing and Bestuzhev and the English Ambassador
worked hard with that end in view.
The hint was given that some financial gifts promised by England had
not arrived, but the English Ambassador assured the Russian Chancellor
that it would all be received in due time and that if necessary the
promised sums would be advanced at once. As a consequence of this there
was much activity about the Russian Court. Finally the long deferred
ratification took place on February 4, 1756, but there had been slyly
added to the treaty a phrase stating that it would be valid only in
case the King of Prussia attacked the dominions of his Majesty, the
King of Great Britain. The English Ambassador strongly protested
against this clause because it made his labor of many months and his
splendid financial “gifts” practically useless, but he was obliged to
accept the paper as it stood.
But the worst was still to come. When the Empress became fully informed
of the treaty between Prussia and England she was furious, and
immediately declared that the arrangement just made between her own
country and England should be declared void. Bestuzhev was frantic at
this order which destroyed the work which had cost him so much time and
labor. Indeed, so far did he go that the Empress reprimanded him for
his impertinence.
The changed condition of diplomatic relations in the world now made
it more desirable than ever that France should be represented at the
Russian Court. The Chevalier Douglass was sent by Louis XV to St.
Petersburg for the second time. He reached there in April, 1756, and
was so eager to present himself that late on the evening of his arrival
he called on the Vice Chancellor and handed him a letter from the
French King to the Russian Empress. The Vice Chancellor, who was in
sympathy with the program of the French, made it a point to present
the messenger from Paris to the Empress that very night. Elizabeth
was not very well pleased that the Chevalier Douglass should be sent
to her Court as an unofficial agent instead of an accredited minister,
but in spite of this fact she received him graciously and listened to
what he had to say. A few days later she sent for Douglass and gave
him a note addressed to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs in
which it was stated that it would be agreeable to her Imperial Majesty
if the Chevalier Douglass was more fully authorized or accredited as
chargé d’affaires, so that it would be possible for both sides to treat
with greater authority on the matters included in his instructions.
She added that this would not only be to the mutual advantage of both
courts but would also tend to hasten their reunion in a diplomatic
sense. It was further stated that notwithstanding the failure to make
the Chevalier Douglass an accredited minister he would be treated with
distinction and listened to with great consideration as being a person
sent to Russia on the part of Louis XV.
Shortly before this meeting between the Empress and Douglass, the
Chevalier D’Eon had returned to Paris, but during his stay in St.
Petersburg he had won the friendship and favor of the Empress. He had
on numerous occasions acted as her reader and his great knowledge of
men and things in all parts of the world had furnished her with more
than ordinary entertainment. She learned that he had a real knowledge
of art and literature and also that while living in Paris he had been
in the midst of many men distinguished in literature, politics and art.
Also she had him recount to her his early experiences as the son of
a Tonnere lawyer and the descendant of a good family. D’Eon was not
the sort of a person to boast of his personal courage, but by close
questioning she learned that he had been engaged in many military
exploits which redounded to his credit.
As a result of all this she desired very much that the Chevaliers
Douglass and D’Eon should be returned to her court as thoroughly
accredited representatives of their Government, but while she was
working to this end, her Chancellor and the English Ambassador were
doing all in their power to prevent the consummation desired by the
French king. Indeed, the English representative still had hopes of
accomplishing the task he had been instructed to perform. His only fear
seems to have been that the health of the Empress, which was not very
good at that time, might become worse and leave the matter suspended,
like Mohammed’s coffin, between Heaven and earth. The Court was in what
might be described as a state of uproar, and Sir Charles Williams,
writing to Lord Holderness, says: “The state of the Empress’s health
has been extremely bad. On the 16th instant there was a ball at Court,
and after the Imperial Ambassador of Austria was gone she told me she
would dance a minuet with me. As soon as it was over she was so spent
that she retired into her own apartments for a quarter of an hour. She
then returned into the ballroom and taking me aside told me in a very
affecting strain how ill she was. She said that her cough had lasted
nine minutes and she could not get rid of it, and that she had quite
lost her appetite. While she was telling me this she was seized with
another fit of coughing that obliged her to retire, and she appeared no
more.”
In another letter addressed to his superior, Sir Charles says: “Last
night the Empress was much worse. She intends if possible, however,
going to Count Esterhasy’s ball, which he gives in honor of the young
grand duke next Wednesday, and there is actually a machine making to
carry her Majesty from one floor to another without obliging her to
mount the stairs. I leave your Lordship to imagine the alarm which
this Court it in. I had much conversation last night with the Grand
Chancellor on the present scene. He perhaps is less alarmed than other
people, for the Grand Duchess is his friend and is governed by him. As
her Imperial Highness is the person who in case of accidents will rule
here, I think it will be well to inform the King of my observations
upon her, which I can the better do because I often have conversations
with her for long periods, as my rank places me at supper always next
to Her Imperial Highness, and almost from the beginning of my being
here she has treated me with confidence, and sent word by the Grand
Chancellor that she would do so.”
But all of the solicitude of the English Ambassador was lost. He could
not get the Empress to agree to the reopening of negotiations looking
to the treaty between the two countries. On the contrary she renewed
her request to King Louis XV for an official representation of that
country at the Russian Court. The Empress’s request was given prompt
consideration, for in July of the same year the Chevalier Douglass was
accredited chargé d’affaires to the Russian Court, while D’Eon, the
dashing young adventurer, joined him, no longer in woman’s apparel but
in the handsome dress of a fashionable young man. He was appointed and
served with great success as Secretary of the French Legation at the
Russian Court. It is very significant of the waning influence of the
wily Chancellor in the esteem of the Empress, that he knew nothing of
the arrangement by which Douglass and D’Eon were sent to St. Petersburg
until these two persons had reached the frontier town of Riga.
This was an instance where French shrewdness got the better of English
gold. Chancellor Bestuzhev was outwitted and outplayed at every stage
of the diplomatic game. He realized, when it was too late, that he had
been beaten by a French spy, disguised as a woman, and the recollection
of it embittered the remainder of his life.
There was a dramatic sequel to this defeat, which fortunately for those
concerned, did not have a fatal ending. Armed thugs entered the house
where Douglass and D’Eon were sleeping and, rushing into the room,
fired several shots at the young men.
They escaped with their lives and were content to regard the affair
as an ordinary case of housebreaking. But if either of them had been
called upon to point the finger of suspicion at any one, it would have
been straight in the direction of Chancellor Bestuzhev.
VII
HOW NAPOLEON’S CHIEF SPY HOODWINKED THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA
The amazing audacity of Charles Louis Schulmeister—Napoleon’s chief
spy—was never illustrated to better advantage than when he hoodwinked
Francis II, Emperor of Austria.
The episode really had its inception on the twenty-third of October,
1805, when Napoleon sent for his favorite and told him that he wanted
to know the plans of the Austrian army. At that time General Kontovsoff
was believed to be hurrying westward with 60,000 Russians. It was
characteristic of Schulmeister that he received this commission as a
matter of course. He had men and money at his disposal and was in a
position to command the attention of the great. But his biggest asset
was his fearlessness.
On the day after his interview with Napoleon he started on the mission
which was to involve him in the most sensational events of his
checkered career. He met his old friend and confederate, Lieutenant
Bendel, at Muhldorf, and by him was presented to General Kienmayer, in
command of the Austrian forces. He was well received as before by this
officer, who regarded him as a member of the Austrian Secret Service.
Indeed, Kienmayer had taken a liking to the medium-sized man with the
scarred forehead and was glad to meet him again. He little thought that
this was the man who had betrayed the Austrian military secrets and who
more than any one individual, was responsible for the maneuvers which
had resulted in the surrender of Field Marshal Mack.
Schulmeister, with his unwavering blue eyes and his brusque soldierly
manner, had several talks with Kienmayer and learned that the Austrian
was not yet ready to take the offensive. Also he was given an inkling
of the movements of General Kontovsoff. This valuable information was
transmitted to Napoleon, who made his plans accordingly.
But Schulmeister was not satisfied to stop at this stage of the game.
He had another scheme hatching in his fertile mind, and presently he
made it known to his friend Bendel.
“I want you to get me permission to wear the uniform of an Austrian
staff officer.”
Bendel, who had already gone to great lengths to serve the spy, gasped
at the daring of this latest request.
“But why?” he asked. “What reason can be given for such a thing?”
The blue-eyed one smiled grimly. The humor of the business was not lost
on him.
“The best reason in the world,” he replied. “It is but a slight return
for all I have done for the Austrian army.”