inferior.

What made it be supposed, at a time when it was not
possible to explain the facts, that M. de
Caulincourt had been employed to seize the Duke
d'Enghien, or cause him to be seized, was, that M.
de Caulincourt received, at the same moment as
General Ord**, orders to repair to Strasbourg, to
cause the emigrants and English agents, who had
fixed the seat of their intrigues at Offenbourg, to
be carried off. But this mission, for which it
would be requisite to take measures in concert with
General Ord**, and perhaps even to assist him in
case of need; for a simultaneous proceeding was
necessary, that one expedition might not cause the
failure of the other; this mission, I say, though
analogous to that of General Ord**, had no real
connexion with it.

Their objects were different:

That of one was to carry off the Duke d'Enghien
from Ettenheim;

That of the other, to seize the conspirators at
Offenbourg, which was eight or ten leagues distant.

Perhaps it will be objected, that M. de Caulincourt
was not ignorant of General Ord**'s being directed,
to seize the Duke d'Enghien. Be it so: I cannot
perceive the consequence, attempted to be drawn
from this. But what I have _seen_ in the cabinet,
and what I attest, is, that the order given to M.
de Caulincourt said nothing of Ettenheim, and that
the name of the Duke d'Enghien was not even
mentioned in it: it related solely, in the first
place, to the construction of a flotilla, that was
preparing on the Rhine; and, secondly, to the
expedition of Offenbourg; an expedition that
terminated, as no doubt is still remembered, in the
laughable flight of the minister Drake and his
agents.

I have thought it my duty as a Frenchman and an
historian, to enter into