As to the military aid from the British that would be required for the enterprise Burr, according to Merry, thought that two or three frigates and the same number of smaller vessels, stationed at the mouth of the Mississippi to prevent its being blockaded by any such force as the United States could send, and to keep open the communications with the sea, was all that would be required. Then Burr came to the vital matter of cost. Merry said Burr conceived that a “loan” of about £100,000 would be sufficient for the immediate purposes of the enterprise. Burr went even further to suggest a way to prevent any suspicion of His Majesty’s Government being involved in the transaction until the independence of Louisiana had been declared. Such suspicion would be raised if remittances were made from England to the United States or if bills were drawn in this country. Burr knew that a payment of £200,000 was due from the United States to England in the coming July. He proposed that the British Government appropriate part of this sum to his plan. If they would do that, Burr told Merry, he could devise the means to get the money into his possession without its destination being either known or suspected. Merry gave no intimation of being surprised at this proposal. If the British Government had been as naïve as its minister in Washington, imagine the change in Burr’s declining fortune on finding himself possessed of the equivalent of approximately $500,000 out of the British Treasury and under conditions that would prevent the British Government from confessing its source or protesting any purpose to which Burr might put it. Shortly after this interview Burr set out for the West. It will be recalled that some careless talk, which gave rise to rumors, alarmed Daniel Clark in New Orleans and caused him to sound a warning to Burr through General Wilkinson. Merry, who by this time imagined that he was a party to the intrigue, also heard the rumors and expressed his anxiety in a letter to Lord Mulgrave who had succeeded Harrowby in the ministry of William Pitt. He wrote: “... I learn that that gentleman [Burr] has commenced his plans in the Western country, and apparently with much success, although it would seem that he or some of his agents have either been indiscreet in their communication, or have been betrayed by some person in whom they considered that they had reason to confide, for the object of his journey has now begun to be noted in the public prints, where it is said that a convention is to be called immediately from the States bordering on the Ohio and the Mississippi for the purpose of forming a separate government.”