‘M. de la Rosière will give you an account of all the tricks, entreaties, threats, promises, &c., to which the Count de Guerchy has resorted, in his endeavours to discover the secret motives of my conduct. He will also inform you of the manner in which I have eluded all his questions, and the little importance I have attached to his promises and threats. I do not think it possible to carry matters further than I have done, nor for any ambassador, or indeed for any man in the world to be more humiliated and mystified than is the Count de Guerchy. As to his threats, I scorn them; I have told him personally that I am firmly determined to resist him, and that should he make his appearance with another detachment of the Guards, I would not attack him, but if he cared to call upon me, he should see how I received him at my door. My door is narrow, and only sufficiently wide to enable one person to enter at a time. I am still Minister Plenipotentiary, for I have not taken leave, and if I choose, I shall take my stand on political grounds, for the next twelve months, before I apply for an audience of leave. All I need is sufficient to meet the expenses of my lodgings and board. La Rosière will tell you that I have prepared eighteen points of defence, which must be carried before I can be compelled to take my leave. I alone, and La Rosière, if he remembers them, know what are those points of defence, and when the Count de Guerchy and Lord Halifax attacked me for the first time, I unmasked one redoubt, and they met with a reverse. M. de Guerchy, S——, and M—— being greatly irritated at my stay at this Court, where the King, the Queen, and the royal family continue to treat me with the same consideration as hitherto, and at a loss to know to what saint they should offer a vow to ensure my retirement, have resorted to the darkest and most iniquitous expedients.’ [Sidenote: ANGUIS IN HERBA.]