swered that he knew
the impression which this circumstance produced, and had seen
the decree I mentioned with consternation; that he believed it
passed only in a moment of fermentation and went beyond what was
intended; that it could be meant only against nations at war,
and was considered as one way of carrying on war against them;
that he believed it was not conformable to the sentiments of the
_Conseil Executif_, and that they might possibly find means to
revise it. To this I said that, whatever were the sentiments of
the _Conseil Executif_, the decree, as it stood, might justly be
considered by any neutral nation as an act of hostility. He
concluded by saying that he would immediately send to M. le Brun
an account of what had passed, which he hoped might lead to
happy consequences.

Maret prefaced his report of this interview by assuring Lebrun that Pitt
was decidedly in favour of peace, and in fact dreaded war more than the
Whig aristocrats; but, he added, Lord Hawkesbury and the majority of
Ministers were for war--a somewhat doubtful statement. Maret's
description of the interview is graphic but far from complete. He
reported Pitt's gracious effort to minimize the difficulties of form
arising from the lapse of official relations between France and England.
But (he wrote) the Minister's brow darkened at the mention of the names
of Noel and Chauvelin; and he finally suggested that Maret should be the
accredited French agent at London.[131]

Pitt's account does not name these personal details, and it lays more
stress on the difficulties caused by the French decrees opening the
Scheldt and offering help to malcontents. We must further remember that
Maret's words of warning to his compatriots on the latter subject were
suppressed in the version published at Paris, which therefore gave the
impression that Pitt was not deeply moved by recent events. This
_suppressio veri_ partly accounts for the persistence of the French
deputies in their resolves, which prevented the friendly explanations
undoubtedly desired by Pitt and Maret.

Bad news also came in from The Hague, to the effect that the French were
demanding a passage through the Dutch fortress of Maestricht. These
tidings caused the worst impression. Grenville wrote in reply to
Auckland on 4th December. "The conduct of the French in all their late
proceedings appears to His Majesty's servants to indicate a fixed a