ut whilst these official envoys
demanded from the various courts prompt and categorical replies, the
secret agents of Dumouriez insinuated themselves into the cabinets of
princes, and compelled some states to detach themselves from the
coalition that was forming. They pointed out to them the advantages of
neutrality for their aggrandisement: they promised them the patronage of
France after victory. Not daring to hope for allies, the minister at
least contrived for France secret understanding: he corrupted by
ambition the states that he could not move by terror: he benumbed the
coalition, which he trusted subsequently to crush.

V.

The prince on whose mind he operated most powerfully was the Duke of
Brunswick, whom the emperor and the king of Prussia alike destined for
the command of the combined armies against the French. This prince was
in their hopes the Agamemnon of Germany.

Charles-Frederic-Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, bred in combats
and in pleasures, had inspired in the camps of the great Frederic the
genius of war, the spirit of French philosophy, and the Machiavellianism
of his master. He had accompanied this philosopher and soldier-king in
all the campaigns of the seven years' war. At the peace he travelled in
France and Italy. Received everywhere as the hero of Germany, and as the
heir to the genius of Frederic, he had married a sister of George III.,
king of England. His capital, where his mistresses shone or philosophers
harangued, united the epicureism of the court to the austerity of the
camp. He reigned according to the precepts of sages; he lived after the
example of the Sybarites. But his soldier's mind, which was but too
easily given up to beauty, was not quenched in love; he only gave his
heart to women, he reserved his head for glory, war, and the government
of his states. Mirabeau, then a young man, had stayed at his court, on
his way to Berlin, to catch the last glimpses of the shining genius of
the great Frederic. The Duke of Brunswick had favourably received and
appreciated Mirabeau. These two men, placed in such different ranks,
resembled each other by their qualities and defects. They were two
revolutionary spirits; but from their difference of situations and
countries, the one was destined to create, and the other to oppose, a
revolution.

Be this as it may, Mirabeau was seduced by the sovereign, whom he was
sent to seduce.

"This prince's countenance," he writes in his secre