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‘ [279] brought upon his court. I had thought Sir James
Chap. XII.} 1780.
Harris understood his business; but he acts like a boy.’

To Frederic, Goertz made his reports: ‘Everything will now depend on the reply of the court of Spain. At so important a moment your Majesty has the right to speak to it with frankness.’1 ‘There

March.
will result from the intrigue a matter, the execution of which no power has thus far been able to permit itself to think of. All have believed it necessary to establish and to fix a public law for neutral powers in a maritime war; the moment has come for attaining that end.’2

These letters reached Frederic by express; and on the fourteenth of March, by the swiftest messenger, he instructed his minister at Paris as follows: ‘Immediately on receiving the present order, you will demand a particular audience of the ministry at Versailles, and you will say that in my opinion everything depends on procuring for Russia without the least loss of time the satisfaction she exacts, and which Spain can the less refuse, because it has plainly acted with too much precipitation. Make the ministry feel all the importance of this warning, and the absolute necessity of satisfying Russia without the slightest delay on an article where the honor of her flag is so greatly interested. In truth, it is necessary not to palter in a moment so pressing.’3

Vergennes read the letter of Frederic, and by a courier despatched a copy of it to the French ambassador

1 Goertz to Frederic, 29 Feb., 1780.

2 Goertz to Frederic, 3 March, 1780.

3 Frederic to Goltz, 14 March, 1780.

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