is very unlikely
that on 13th January they knew of the aggressive plans which the
Executive Council had formed three days before. But it is certain that
such plans were set on foot on 10th January. On that day the Executive
Council drew up secret orders for Generals Dumouriez and Miranda. The
former was then at Paris concerting plans for the next campaign, not
for the purpose of saving Louis XVI, as he afterwards stated. Whether he
fanned the warlike ardour of the Executive Council will perhaps never be
known. But undoubtedly on 10th January the Executive Council bade him
order his lieutenant, Miranda, to prepare for the invasion of Dutch
Flanders and Walcheren within twelve days. Furnaces were to be supplied
to the French gun-vessels in the Scheldt so as to beat off the frigates,
whether English or Dutch is not stated.[175]

Why did not Miranda carry out this plan? Merely because he had neither
stores nor food[176]--a fact which justifies the British Government in
placing an embargo on the corn intended for France. Undoubtedly if he
had had supplies, Miranda would have seized the lands at the mouth of
the Scheldt, and cut off the retreat of the Stadholder to his place of
refuge, Walcheren. It will further be observed that these orders were
given at Paris three days after the despatch of Lebrun's and Maret's
notes to London. The design apparently was to amuse England until a
deadly blow could be struck at the Dutch. Auckland, writing on the 11th
at The Hague, expressed to Grenville the hope that war might be avoided,
or, if that were impossible, that the rupture should be postponed until
the Austrians and Prussians had re-crossed the Rhine. The preparations
of the Dutch were going on with the usual slowness.[177] Evidently the
French Government counted on their traditional inertia and on the
malcontents in Great Britain and Ireland. The private letters of Maret,
that _soi-disant_ friend of peace, breathe full assurance of
victory.[178]

Grenville of course sent no answer to the last missive of Maret; but to
Lebrun he replied, on 18th January, that his explanations were wholly
unsatisfactory, as they maintained the right of the Executive Council to
annul treaties at will. Until satisfaction were granted for the
aggressions on His Majesty's ally, he would continue to take all
measures needful for their common safety. The terms of this reply were
doubtless due to the last news received from Paris. On 12th January the
arc