Colleville could not have begun his work better. D’Auerweck was not unknown to Reinhard, who, five months before, in a letter to Delacroix, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, had mentioned the fact of his presence in London, “where he was in frequent touch with du Moustier and the former minister Montciel.” By a curious coincidence, on the same day that Reinhard got his information, the Minister of Police in Paris, the Citoyen Cochon, had been made aware that a congress of _émigrés_ was shortly to be held at Hamburg. The agent who sent him this announcement drew his attention at the same time to the presence at Hamburg of a person named Cormier. “It should be possible to find out through him the names of those who will be taking part in the Congress. He is a magistrate of Rennes who has been continually mixed up in intrigue. His wife has remained in Paris.... The correspondence of this Cormier ought to be amusing, for he is daring and has _esprit_.” Reference is made in the same communication to “the baron Varweck, a Hungarian, passing himself off as an American, living in Paris for the past five months.” This was enough to arouse the attention of the Directoire. The persistence with which the two names reappeared proved that their efforts had not slackened. By force of what circumstances had they been drawn into the great intrigue against the Revolutionary Party? It is difficult to say. For some months past Cormier’s letters to Lady Atkyns had been gradually becoming fewer, at last to cease altogether. Having lost all hope in regard to the affair of the Temple, the ex-magistrate, placing trust in the general belief as to what had happened, came to the conclusion that it was vain to attempt to penetrate further into the mystery, and he decided to place his services at the disposal of the Princes. The Minister for Foreign Affairs lost no time about sending instructions to Reinhard, charging him to keep a sharp watch on the meeting of the _émigrés_ and to learn the outcome of their infamous manœuvres. He should get Colleville, moreover, to establish relations with Cormier, “that very adroit and clever individual.” In the course of a few days Reinhard felt in a position to pull the strings of his system of espionage. Two very different parties were formed among the _émigrés_ at Hamburg. That of the “Old Royalists,” or of the “_ancien régime_,” would hear of nothing but the restoration of the ancient monarchy; that of the “new _régime_” felt that it was necessary, in order to reinstate the monarchy, to make concessions to Republican ideas. Cormier would seem to have belonged to the former, of which he was the only enterprising member. His brother-in-law, Butler, kept on the move between Paris and Boulogne, and Calais and Dunkirk, with letters and supplies of money from England. D’Auerweck had left Paris now and was in England, eager to join Cormier at Hamburg, but prevented by illness.