In a very short time she gave him a written statement in which she expressed a willingness to receive and to accord “respectful treatment for any envoy of the King of France who would bring with him sufficient powers to sign a treaty.” With this precious paper in his possession Douglass hastened to Paris to give it to the King. D’Eon, in the meantime, remained in St. Petersburg in order to see that there were no unexpected developments that would militate against King Louis XV. There can be no doubt but that it was the secret influence which Douglass and D’Eon had with the Empress which led her to neglect the treaty with England which the Chancellor had fully expected her to sign. “I am sorry to say,” writes the English Ambassador to Lord Holderness, “that it is impossible for the Chancellor to get her Majesty to put her signature to the treaty which we so much desire. He appears to be very much in awe of her.” Little did the diplomats suspect that their carefully laid plans had been upset by the “charming niece” of the Chevalier Douglass. In the meantime other events were occurring in other parts of the world which served to make still further impossible the thing which England had so ardently desired. King George had become alarmed over the unexpected delay and entered into a defensive alliance with the King of Prussia. By this the Prussian monarch agreed to defend Hanover. This treaty was signed at Westminster on January 16, 1756. The news was sent to the English Ambassador at St. Petersburg, who promptly communicated it to the Chancellor Bestuzhev. That aged, if not venerable, diplomat swore violently. And little wonder, for it meant that his long-sought scheme to humiliate Frederick of Prussia and to gain England as an ally, had collapsed. After he had partially recovered his self-possession he exclaimed: “This union between England and Prussia will be bitter news to her Imperial Majesty.” “Why so?” replied the innocent English Ambassador. “Such an alliance can offend no one but France.” In the meantime the treaty between England and Russia was still regarded as a desirable thing and Bestuzhev and the English Ambassador worked hard with that end in view. The hint was given that some financial gifts promised by England had not arrived, but the English Ambassador assured the Russian Chancellor that it would all be received in due time and that if necessary the promised sums would be advanced at once. As a consequence of this there was much activity about the Russian Court. Finally the long deferred ratification took place on February 4, 1756, but there had been slyly added to the treaty a phrase stating that it would be valid only in case the King of Prussia attacked the dominions of his Majesty, the King of Great Britain. The English Ambassador strongly protested against this clause because it made his labor of many months and his splendid financial “gifts” practically useless, but he was obliged to accept the paper as it stood.