“Now supervenes a whole year, during which his doings and his whereabouts are most carefully concealed,” wrote another; “however, I am certain that he is acting and working pertinaciously against the interests of France. I have heard him make this remark: ‘_We shall take some time doing it, but at last we shall conquer you_.’” A third added: “His tranquillity and his silence are but masks for his activity, and I, for one, could never be persuaded that he has all of a sudden ceased to correspond with _Lord Grenville_ in London, with the _Count de Romanzof_, with a certain _Nicolai_ in St. Petersburg, with _Prince Belmonte_, with the _Chevalier de Saint-Andre_, with _Roger de Damas_ in Italy, with _Dumoustier_, who is, I believe, a Hohenlohe Prince in Berlin, and directly with the Count de Lille.” Finally, d’Auerweck, according to the same report, “complaisantly displayed a spot in the shape of the fleur-de-lys, inside his fist, declaring that ‘this is a sign of descent; it is a mark of predestination; I of all men am bound to devote myself and assist in the return of the Bourbons!’” It would be a fatal mistake to believe that these fairy tales, all vague and absurd as they often were, remained lost and forgotten in the despatch-boxes of the Ministry of Police. The region, near as it was to Rastadt, where d’Auerweck was reported to have made his appearance, was a valuable and important indication, which of itself was sufficient to make the man an object for watchful suspicion. The ominous nature of the times must, of course, be remembered. Fouché, who had just been restored to favour, and had been placed for the second time at the head of the Ministry of Police, was anxious to prove his zeal afresh, to please the Emperor and to deserve his confidence, while his mind was still troubled by the execution of the Duc d’Enghien, by the exploits of Georges Cadoudal, and by the discovery of the English Agency at Bordeaux, which were all fitting reasons for attracting the Minister’s attention and for exciting his curiosity. So, when on October 11, 1804, his Excellency decided to make further searching investigations into d’Auerweck’s case, and gave precise orders to the prefects of the frontier departments of the Grand Duchy, it is doubtful whether he was careful to note in his charge the principal reasons for attaching suspicion upon the Baron, viz. those which had to do with the assassination of the plenipotentiaries at Rastadt. It was some time before the required information could be obtained, and though the first inquiries about d’Auerweck made by Desportes, the prefect of the Upper Rhine, added little in the way of news, they agreed, nevertheless, in certifying that the Baron lived very quietly in the outskirts of Offenburg-- “that he there devoted himself entirely to his agricultural occupations, and that the kind of life he led did not foster any suspicion that he kept up his old campaigns of intrigue.”