The person entrusted with this commission,
assumed the name of Baron de Kolly, and besides the necessary credit
and credentials, he was furnished with the original letter, written by
Charles IV. to George III. in 1802, notifying the marriage of his son,
the Prince of the Asturias, and containing a marginal note from the
Marquis W.... in corroboration of his mission. A small squadron was
also sent to cruize off that part of the coast most contiguous to
Valencay, under the orders of Commodore C.... to be in readiness to
receive the royal fugitive. On a sudden the Baron de Kolly was seized,
and the plan frustrated, but the real particulars were never known
until after the events of the campaign of 1815.

In the course of the passage to St. Helena, Admiral C.... (who
had been entrusted with the project) expressed a wish to know of
Buonaparte, by what means de Kolly had been discovered and arrested,
and the true circumstances of the affair so totally unknown in
England, adding, that if no motive of state policy intervened, he was
anxious to hear the whole disclosure. Buonaparte readily consented,
and told him that de Kolly arrived at Paris and lived in the greatest
obscurity, dressed shabbily, and eating his meals only at cheap
traiteurs in the Fauxbourg St. Antoine. However, he was not satisfied
with the common wine served up, and would ask for the best Bordeaux,
for which he paid five francs per bottle. This contrast of poverty and
luxury excited suspicions in the waiters of the two houses he thus
frequented, who being in the pay of the police, immediately sent in a
report. De Kolly was watched, and soon afterwards seized with all
his papers. Buonaparte said he then procured a person, as nearly
resembling de Kolly as could be found, to carry on the English
stratagem, under a hope that Ferdinand would have fallen into the
trap; and with all the original credentials, this agent of the French
police went into the castle of Valencay, under a pretext of selling
some trinkets. Ferdinand however, said Buonaparte, was too great a
coward to enter into the views proposed to him, but instantly gave
information of what had been communicated, to his first chamberlain,
Amazada, in a letter written to the governor of the castle!--By this
means Ferdinand escaped being placed at the mercy of Buonaparte, whose
intention was to intercept him in his flight.

Although the conduct of Ferdinand was in this instance pusillanimous
and cruel, it