LETTER V.

PARIS, August, 1805.

MY LORD:--Thanks to Talleyrand's political emigration, our Government has
never been in ignorance of the characters and foibles of the leading
members among the emigrants in England. Otto, however, finished their
picture, but added, some new groups to those delineated by his
predecessor. It was according to his plan that the expedition of Mehee
de la Touche was undertaken, and it was in following his instructions
that the campaign of this traitor succeeded so well in Great Britain.

Under the Ministry of Vergennes, of Montmorin, and of Delessart, Mehee
had been employed as a spy in Russia, Sweden, and Poland, and acquitted
himself perfectly to the satisfaction of his masters. By some accident
or other, Delessart discovered, however, in December, 1791, that he had,
while pocketing the money of the Cabinet of Versailles, sold its secrets
to the Cabinet of St. Petersburg. He, of course, was no longer trusted
as a spy, and therefore turned a Jacobin, and announced himself to
Brissot as a persecuted patriot. All the calumnies against this Minister
in Brissot's daily paper, Le Patriote Francois, during January, February,
and March, 1792, were the productions of Mehee's malicious heart and able
pen. Even after they had sent Delessart a State prisoner to Orleans, his
inveteracy continued, and in September the same year he went to
Versailles to enjoy the sight of the murder of his former master. Some
go so far as to say that the assassins were headed by this monster, who
aggravated cruelty by insult, and informed the dying Minister of the
hands that stabbed him, and to whom he was indebted for a premature