ut no hope of a reconciliation.
There came with it, however, a long and rambling letter from Maret to
Miles, which was intended partly to threaten, partly to cajole the
Ministry. In its more dulcet passages the hope was set forth that the
Scheldt affair could be settled, and even that Chauvelin might be
replaced by the estimable Barthelemy. Miles, highly elated, hurried to
the Foreign Office on that momentous Sunday, 13th January, and found
that a Cabinet meeting was proceeding. Pitt came out and cordially
received Maret's note. He returned to the Cabinet meeting (at which,
strange to say, Burke was present) but came out again "furious,
freighted with the bile of the whole Cabinet," and forbade Miles to have
any dealings with the French Executive Council.[173]

How are we to explain this change from affability to anger? The
impressionable Miles believed that in that hour Pitt capitulated to
Burke and became a man of war. The reader who takes the trouble to
compare Lebrun's note with that of Maret will probably come to another
conclusion, namely, that the latter seems very like a device to throw
the British Ministry off its guard. The terms of the two notes are
widely divergent; and, in such a case, Pitt naturally accepted that of
Lebrun and scouted that of Maret, as of a busybody or an intriguer.
Grenville objected to this double-dealing;[174] and probably the
presence of Burke at the Cabinet meeting sharpened the demand for its
cessation.

Another explanation of Pitt's fury is possible. Grenville and he may
have received news of the warlike preparations going on in the French
seaports and on the Dutch borders. I have found no proof of this; but it
is certain that by this time they must have had before them the
inflammatory appeal of Monge to French and English Jacobins as well as
the boastful tirade of Kersaint to the Convention. Having these proofs
of the warlike ardour of the French and of their reliance on British
reformers, how could Pitt and Grenville look on the philanthropic
professions of Maret as anything but a snare, and Miles as his dupe?
Miles had ever been officious. Clearly the time had come to stop his
fussy advances to an unofficial agent, which Lebrun might once more
ascribe to Pitt's secret fear of France.

It would be interesting to discover how far Pitt and Grenville were at
this time aware of the secret designs of the French Executive Council.
On this topic I have found no definite evidence. It