Seward, in conversation with Lyons, had said that to avoid public misconceptions a newspaper statement would be prepared on Mercier’s trip.  This appeared May 6, in the New York Times, the paper more closely Seward’s “organ” than any other throughout the war, representing Mercier as having gone to Richmond by order of Napoleon and with Lincoln’s approval to urge the Confederates to surrender and to encourage them to expect favourable terms.  Lyons commented on this article that the language attributed to Mercier was “not very unlike that which he intended to hold,” but that in fact he had not used it[603].  Nor had Napoleon ordered the move.  Indeed everyone in London and Paris was much astonished, and many were the speculations as to the meaning of Mercier’s unusual procedure.  Russell was puzzled, writing “Que diable allait il faire dans cette galere[604]?” and Cowley, at Paris, could give no light, being assured by Thouvenel on first rumours of Mercier’s trip to Richmond that “he had not a notion that this could be true[605].”  May 1, Cowley wrote, “The whole thing is inexplicable unless the Emperor is at the bottom of it, which Thouvenel thinks is not the case[606].”  The next day Thouvenel, having consulted Napoleon, was assured by the latter that “he could not account for Monsieur Mercier’s conduct, and that he greatly regretted it,” being especially disturbed by a seeming break in the previous “complete harmony with the British Representative” at Washington[607].  This was reassuring to Russell, yet there is no question that Mercier’s conduct long left a certain suspicion in British official circles.  On May 2, also, Thouvenel wrote to Flahault in London of the Emperor’s displeasure, evidently with the intention that this should be conveyed to Russell[608].

Naturally the persons most excited were the two Confederate agents in Europe.  At first they believed Mercier must have had secret orders from Napoleon, and were delighted; then on denials made to Slidell by Thouvenel they feared Mercier was acting in an unfavourable sense as Seward’s agent.  Later they returned to the theory of Napoleon’s private manipulation, and being confident of his friendship were content to wait events[609].  Slidell had just received assurance from M. Billault, through whom most of his information came, “that the Emperor and all the Ministers are favourable to our cause, have been so for the last year, and are now quite as warmly so as they have ever been.  M. Thouvenel is of course excepted, but then he has no hostility[610].”  But a greater source of Southern hope at this juncture was another “diplomatic adventure,” though by no accredited diplomat, which antedated Mercier’s trip to Richmond and which still agitated not only the Confederate agents, but the British Ministry as well.