which they would have a
safe retreat, would descend by Carenton on Saint-Lo and Caen to meet the
army of peasants and malcontents whose cooperation d'Ache guaranteed.
He undertook to collect twenty thousand men; the English government
offered the same number of Russian and Swedish soldiers, and to provide
for their transportation to the coast of France. Pending this, d'Ache
was given unlimited credit on the banker Nourry at Caen.

His stay in London lasted nearly three months. Towards the end of July
an English frigate took him to the fleet where Admiral Saumarez received
him with great deference, and equipped a brig with fourteen cannon to
convey him to the shore. When, at night, they were within a gunshot of
the coast of Saint-Honorine, d'Ache himself made the signals agreed
upon, which were quickly answered by the coast guard on shore. An hour
afterwards David the Intrepid's boat hailed the English brig, and before
daybreak d'Ache was back at Mandeville, sharing with his hosts the joy
he felt at the success of his voyage. They began to make plans
immediately. It was decided on the spot that the Chateau de Monfiquet
should shelter the King during the first few days after he landed. Eight
months were to elapse before the beginning of the campaign, and as money
was not lacking this time was sufficient for d'Ache to prepare for
operations.

We may as well mention at once that the English Cabinet, while playing
on the fanaticism of d'Ache, as they had formerly done on that of
Georges Cadoudal and so many others, had not the slightest intention of
keeping their promises. Their hatred of Napoleon suggested to them the
infamous idea of exciting the naive royalists of France by raising
hopes they never meant to satisfy. They abandoned them once they saw
their dupes so deeply implicated that there was no drawing back, caring
little if they helped them to the scaffold, desirous only of maintaining
agitations in France and of driving them into such desperate straits
that some assassin might arise from among them who would rid the world
of Bonaparte. Here lies, doubtless, one of the reasons why the exiled
princes so obstinately refused to encourage their partisans' attempts.
Did they know of the snares laid for these unhappy creatures? Did they
not dare to put them on their guard for fear of offending the English
government? Was this the rent they paid for Hartwell? The history of the
intrigues which played around the claimant