rusted him with a
recipe for sympathetic ink. Thus furnished, Mehee proceeded to Paris,
sent his briber a few harmless bulletins, took his information to the
police, and, _at Napoleon's dictation_, gave him news that seriously
misled our Government and Nelson.[290]

The same trick was tried on Stuart, our ambassador at Vienna, who had
a tempting offer from a French agent to furnish news from every French
despatch to or from Vienna. Stuart had closed with the offer, when
suddenly the man was seized at the instance of the French ambassador,
and his papers were searched.[291] In this case there were none that
compromised Stuart, and his career was not cut short in the
ignominious manner that befell Drake, over whom there may be inscribed
as epitaph the warning which Talleyrand gave to young aspirants--"et
surtout pas trop de zele."

Thus, while the royalists were conspiring the overthrow of Napoleon,
he through his agents was countermining their clumsy approach to his
citadel, and prepared to blow them sky high when their mines were
crowded for the final rush. The royalist plans matured slowly owing to
changes which need not be noticed. Georges Cadoudal quitted London,
and landed at Biville, a smuggler's haunt not far from Dieppe, on
August 23rd, 1803. Thence he made his way to Paris, and spent some
months in striving to enlist trusty recruits. It has been stated that
the plot never aimed at assassination, but at the overpowering of the
First Consul's escort, and the seizure of his person, during one of
his journeys. Then he was to be forcibly transferred to the northern
coast on relays of horses, and hurried over to England.[292] But,
though the plotters threw the veil of decency over their enterprise by
calling it kidnapping, they undoubtedly meant murder. Among Drake's
papers there is a hint that the royalist emissaries were _at first_ to
speak only of the seizure and deportation of the First Consul.

Whatever may have been their precise aims, they were certainly known
to Napoleon and his police. On November 1st, 1803, he wrote to
Regnier:

"You must not be in a hurry about the arrests: when the author
[Mehee] has given in all the information, we will draw up a plan
with him, and will see what is to be done. I wish him to write to
Drake, and, in order to make him trustful, inform him that, before
the great blow can be dealt, he believes he [Mehee] can promise to
have seized on the