ns. He proceeded on his way to Paris, passing Maret in the night near
Abbeville. To assign much importance to his "despatch" is to overrate
both his errand and his position at Paris. Maret was only one of the
head clerks at the French Foreign Office and had no right to sign
official despatches. If he really was charged by Lebrun to tender the
olive-branch, why was not that despatch sent to London in a form and
manner which would procure credence and have some effect? Again, if
Maret came to restore peace, why did he not at once produce his powers?
The question was infinitely important and undeniably urgent. Instead of
taking decisive action, as any well-wisher of mankind must have done at
so awful a crisis, he declined to enter into particulars, and, on the
plea that Chauvelin was ordered to Paris (which he himself knew before
he left that city) waited for further instructions--which never came.
Finally he confessed to Miles that he came to prepare the way for
Dumouriez and to discover whether that general would be assured of
personal safety if he came to England.

Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.

Such must have been the thought of Miles, when he heard this singular
admission. For what trust could be placed in Dumouriez, whose conquest
of Belgium--the source of the present difficulties--had by no means
sated his desire for its natural sequel, the conquest of Holland? That
Maret had credentials of some kind may be admitted; for he showed them
to Miles and claimed to be _charge d'affaires_; but, as Miles found his
powers to be "extremely limited,"[185] we may doubt whether they
extended beyond the collection and transport of the archives of Portman
Square. If he had any authority to treat with our Government, it is
curious that he refrained from doing so merely on the ground of
Chauvelin's departure. "Apprehensive that this event might derange what
had been agreed upon, he despatched a messenger with a letter to Lebrun
stating that _under the present circumstances, he should not think
himself authorized to communicate with the British Ministers without
fresh instructions_."[186]

Notwithstanding the urgency of the case, he received not a line, not
even a newspaper, from Paris during his stay in London. In fact, the
_soi-disant "charge d'affaires"_ of France knew so little of the real
state of affairs that he assured Miles of the desire of his countrymen
to give up Nice, Mainz, Worms, the Rhineland, the Sc