The Sun.
London, England, 1871-02-06 00:00:00

THE BELLE VUE CONSPIRATORS.

Azamat•Batuk, in the Pall Mall Gazette, gives an
animated account of the proceedings of a gronp of ladies,
whom he styles the Belle Vua Conspirators. Five ladies
of rank and high social position, set to work, imme•
diately after the catastrophe of Sedan, in the
Belle Vue Hotel at Brussels, weaving their spells
to resuscitate the fallen Empire. They had plenty
of money from Chiselhurst and Wilhelmshohe and no lack
of energy, the most energetic and the most noisy being an
English duchess, better known in Paris than in her own
country. The others were French, English, and
Austrian, but the Austrian lady was less per-
servering than the rest, and vanished into
her own chateau after visiting Chiselhurst and
Wilhelmsohe. A number of gentlemen who occupied
high standing under the Emperor, formed the working
staff. One of them whose name was not known in Brussels,
was at first supposed to be the Mons. N. of the Bourbaki
story, but this is uncertain. No. one could make out
what the precise plans of the society were, though the
members were constantly hurrying from Brussels to
London and back again, and their agents were
rushing from one French town to another.
The only intelligible purposes which could be discovered
were, in the first place, to secure some luggage belonging
to the Empress, which, as she was unable to carry it with
her in her flight, had been consigned to the care of private
individuals in several large towns in the north. This
luggage does not seem to have contained articles of any
considerable pecuniary value, but it contained a
considerable amount of important private as well
as State correspondence. It would also appear that
a considerable number of letters and telegrams sent by
the Emperor to the Empress, and vice versa, when
the former was on his adventurous escape from Metz to
Chalons, as well as on his fatal march from Chalons to
Sedan, did not reach their destination. The greater part
of the documents, originally scattered in the hands of
various generals, aides-de-camp, prefects and mires, had
by-and-by been gathered together into some devoted Tin-
' perialist hands and brought into Paris, where they seem
still to remain, and whence the Brussels committee ex-
erted its best efforts to get them. Another part of the pro-

gramme was to send as Many agents as poss ible into France
to communicate with the various civil and military autho-
rities of the North to secure their assistance in the event
of the Emperor's return. It is difficult to say whether
or no the return is to be effected tbrqugh Prussian aid,
but at one time at least it was thought the Emperor
might come back to France on his own account.
At the end of September and the beginning of
October the communications with the Emperor were closely
watched by the Germans, anti many messengers sent to
him were not admitted. The manner in which the coin-

mittee worked out the only comprehensible points of their
scheme, the rescue of the luggage, and the securing of
the adhesion of the civil and military authorities was in
many respects comical. The male agents were persons
so well known in France that they could
not move without raising suspicion. Most of
them were men of means who had no wish to run into
danger, and several who had landed property in the North
of France, when sent into that part of the country, con-
tented themselves with visiting their own estates. The
committee grew dissatisfied, and began to despair of
success, but the eager English duchess was determined not
to fail. She began to look out for feminine agents,
and soon found two, one was the wife of a French general,
who undertook to act as courier between England, Bel-
gium, and Wilhelmshohe ; the other a French lady,
who has long been famous in Paris for her
cleverness and her folly at the same time. The Duchess
harangued this lady, whose fortunes had, she knew,
been considerably reduced by the war, telling her
that she knew she was fond of adventures, and that the
expedition proposed to her would be highly advantageous.
The lady, though seemingly langhing in secret at the
transaction, amed to start for Paris, but refused to take
any money until she had done something to deserve it.
Az.unut Batuk uncharitably suggests that this
disinterestedness was due to a regard for her own safety.
She was styled the dame aux cent-dix-neuf coups, the
Duchess declaring she had made so many triumphs in her
life, and she rapidly became the heroine of the committee,
and especially of the Duchess. In less than a week after
they made their acquaintance, the lady, entrusted with all
sorts of introductions to the generals and commanding
officers of the north, and with full powers for entering into
negotiations with the person who had in his hand the Im-
perial correspondence at Paris, started from Brussels with
instructions to enter Paris either by some coup de main
under the cover of a company of francs•tireurs, to the
'care of whose commander she was commended,
or by such stratagem as she might invent to
deceive the Prussian authorities and pass their lines.
However, the " dame aux cent dix neuf coups " did not
reach Paris. The letters of introduction and other docu-
ments were burned at an hotel In one of the Great