These instructions fell into the very hands of those whose fidelity was thus priced, and they gave them to the king with all the innocence of individuals shamefully calumniated.  The king blushed for himself at the empire over his politics thus ascribed to love and intrigue.  He was indignant at the fidelity of his subjects being thus assailed:  all negotiation was nipped in the bud before the arrival of the negotiator.  M. de Segur was received with coldness and all the irony of contempt.  Frederic Willam affected never to mention him in his circle, and asked aloud before him, of the envoy of the elector of Mayence, news of the Prince de Conde:  the envoy replied that this prince was approaching the frontiers of France with his army.  “He is right,” said the king, “for he is on the point of entering there.”  M. de Segur, accustomed, from his long residence and his familiar footing at the court of Catherine, to take love for the intermediary of his affairs, induced, it is said, the countess d’Ashkof and prince Henry of Prussia to join the peace party.  This success was but a snare for his negotiation.  The king, arranging with the emperor, affected for some time to lean towards France, to complain of the exactions of emigration, and to make much of the ambassador; who, thus cajoled, sent the warmest assurances to the French cabinet as to the intentions of Prussia.  But the sudden disgrace of the countess d’Ashkof and the offer of alliance with France insultingly repulsed, threw at once light and confusion into the plots of M. de Segur:  he demanded his recall.  The humiliation of seeing his talents played with, the hopes of his party annihilated, the prospect of his country’s misfortunes, and Europe in flames, had, it was reported, urged his sadness to despair.  The report ran that he had attempted his life.  This imputed suicide was but a brain fever occasioned by the anguish of a proud mind deeply wounded.

XXII.

The same party attempted, and at nearly the same time, to acquire for France a sovereign whose renown weighed as heavily as a throne in the opinion of Europe.  This was the duke of Brunswick, a pupil of the great Frederic, the presumed heir of his military fame and inspiration, and proclaimed, by anticipation, by the public voice, generalissimo, in the coming war against France.  To carry off from the emperor and the king of Prussia the chief of their armies, was to deprive Germany of confidence and of victory.

The name of the duke of Brunswick was a prestige which invested Germany with a feeling of terror and inviolability.  Madame de Staeel and her party attempted it.  This secret negotiation was concerted amongst Madame de Staeel, M. de Narbonne, M. de La Fayette, and M. de Talleyrand.  M. de Custine, son of the general of that name, was chosen to convey to the duke of Brunswick the wishes of the constitutional party.  The young negotiator was well prepared for his mission: