He despatched a secret emissary to the king of Prussia and the emperor, to entreat them, as they valued his safety, to suspend hostilities, and to precede the invasion by a conciliating manifesto, which might allow France to retire from the contest without disgrace, and would place the life of the royal family under the safeguard of the nation.  This secret agent was Mallet-Dupan, a young journalist of Geneva, established in France, and mixed up with the counter-revolutionary movement.  Mallet-Dupan was attached to the monarchy by principle, and to the king by personal devotion.  He left Paris under pretext of returning to Geneva, and from thence went to Germany, where he had an interview with the Marechal de Castries, the foreign confidant of Louis XVI., and one of the leaders of the emigres.  Accredited by the Duc de Castries, he presented himself at Coblentz to the Duke of Brunswick, at Frankfort to the ministers of the king of Prussia and the emperor; they however refused to place any faith in his communications, unless he produced a letter in the king’s own hand.  On this the king transmitted him a slip of paper, about two inches long, on which was written:  “The person who will produce this note knows my intentions; implicit credence may be given to all he says in my name.” This royal sign of recognition gave Mallet-Dupan access to the cabinets of the coalition.

Conferences were opened between the French negotiator, the Comte de Cobentzel, the Comte d’Haugwitz, and general Heyman, the plenipotentiaries of the emperor, and the king of Prussia.  These ministers, after having examined the credentials of Mallet-Dupan, listened to his communications.  They were to the effect that “the king alike prayed and exhorted the emigres not to cause the approaching war to lose its appearance of power against power, by taking part in it, in the name of the re-establishment of the monarchy.  Any other line of conduct would produce a civil war, endanger the lives of the king and queen, destroy the throne, and occasion a general massacre of the royalists.  The king added, that he besought the sovereigns who had taken up arms in his cause, to separate, in their manifesto, the faction of the Jacobins from the nation, and the liberty of the people from the anarchy that convulsed them; to declare formally and energetically to the Assembly, the administrative and municipal bodies, that their lives should be answerable for all and every attempt against the sacred persons of the king, the queen, and their children; and to announce to the nation that no dismemberment would follow the war, that they would treat for peace with the king alone, and that in consequence the Assembly should hasten to give him the most perfect liberty, in order to enable him to negotiate in the name of his people with the allied powers.”

Mallet-Dupan explained the sense of these instructions with that enlightened good sense, and that devoted attachment to the king that marked him; he painted in the most lively colours the interior of the Tuileries, and the terror to which the royal family was a prey.