Chapter XXVII: Conclusion: Bibliography

The bibliography connected with the business of espionage is not, as may be supposed, a very extensive one. Great spies have all written their memoirs, but in no case can these works be regarded as trustworthy records of the actual parts played by their writers in important historic events or episodes, and it is always necessary to go to independent chroniclers in order to arrive at the truth. As regards themselves, they are peculiarly fortunate in that highly placed patrons and collaborators have rarely, if ever, condescended to criticise or question their claims or statements, the result being that their most preposterous pretensions find acceptance at face value. It is well, too, that not one of them, as far as the writer has discovered, evinces anything like literary tact in his attempts to conceal the essentially underhand nature of his professional art. Your Schulmeisters and Stiebers, on the bare evidence of their own life stories, disclose their real motives and characters so clearly and intimately as to leave us with the impression that it is only very poor judges of human nature who can fail to categorise them accurately.

Our own study of the master spy has left us unimpressed regarding the qualities of either head or heart which are called for in the business of espionage, and whatever courage may appear to attach to the characters of men like Schulmeister, Stieber and even André, we remain convinced that there was in none of them anything like nobility of purpose and that a very cheap material ambition underlay all their respective rôles, dramatic though those rôles may have been. The characters of the two spies of the War of Independence seem to us to have been lamentably lacking in that fine spirituality which one looks for in men who are willing to die for any strong faith that is in them; the American appears to have been an idealist of a type which is not easily differentiable from the oriental fanatic who is said to possess no very settled convictions about his cause; while the Englishman's motives were based purely upon rapid self-advancement. As to Le Caron, we admit having approached his case with every predisposition to admire him, only to find our earlier illusions entirely shattered after a careful study of his reminiscences; and the printed word must be allowed to go a long way towards self-revelation. As for Schulmeister, he threw his lot in with the side which paid him the highest price, and patriotism or nobility of sentiment in no way coloured his otherwise important abilities and services, while Stieber—the odious Stieber was at once a cringing self-seeker, a bragging bully and, shorn of his protections, an obvious and elemental coward. MacParlan was a detective pure and simple, and to him there attaches no stigma of having taken an oath to serve a cause which secretly he meant to betray. Of all the rôles enacted by the various exponents of espionage with whom we have dealt, MacParlan's appears to us to have been far and away the most heroic and, in view of the dread organisation which he was fighting single-handed, also the most patriotic and utilitarian.

In regard to the sources which we have drawn upon, those which deal with Schulmeister call for some comment. Napoleon's agent is mentioned by many of the high functionaries of the Empire who published memoirs dealing with its glittering legend. Savary, Fouché, Rapp and Marbot all give him a word, while Thiers, much later, mentions him as having contributed a share to the glories of the Corsican. With the exception of the short Life by Diffenbach, and his own very unreliable _Fragments_, we are aware of no exhaustive biography of the spy, while magazine and newspaper articles, such as those published in the _Allgemeine Zeitung_, the _Courrier du Bas-Rhin_ and other periodicals, differ altogether as to details and chronology in descriptions of him. The author remembers to have read, when a student in Germany, many years back, an account of Schulmeister obviously written by an Alsatian and signed with the name, F. Ott, which gave particulars as to the spy's first meeting with Napoleon, as well as the story of his social career in Vienna before joining the army of Mack. These particulars are not mentioned by any other writers except Savary and a scribe in _The Royal United Service Magazine_ of December 1897. In view of so many conflicting accounts, however, we have thought it fair to draw upon this recollection in our own story of the Alsatian, although at present we cannot recall the exact source.

Le Caron has, of course, been his own biographer and the popular Press of the time of the Parnell Commission teems with accounts, correct or imaginary, of the Anglo-American major. Sir Robert Anderson, in his reminiscences, speaks of his agent in terms of consideration and respect. In a letter which Sir Robert was so good as to write to the author, in this connection, appear the following remarks:—

"My best agents, when I had charge of secret-service work, were as much entitled to respect as were my officers in the Criminal Investigation Department when I had charge of that branch of Police work, or as our military who 'spy' the German trenches from aeroplanes. Others again take up that sort of work for 'filthy lucre sake,' and yet others from all sorts of motives, some praiseworthy and some contemptible. Spies differ as much as parsons or doctors, and no general rule can be applied to them. Le Caron was in every way a worthier and more respectable man than were some of the M.P.'s who abused him in Parliament. Some of my other agents were much in the same category. Others, again, who gave me information of great value, were creatures whom it was an ordeal to have to deal with."

MacParlan's career was well known to many of the old stagers of the New York and Philadelphia newspapers, and from one who knew him, the writer has taken the version he gives of the admirable detective's final disappearance from the coal regions of Pennsylvania, according it preference over the somewhat prosaic departure as told by MacParlan's excellent biographer, Mr Dewees. While volumes have been written to the glorification of Major André, it is unfortunate that very little is known regarding Nathan Hale, and it is certain that no portrait remains extant of that youthful hero. The Duchess of Portsmouth has been fully dealt with by many writers; the Chevalier d'Eon has had the advantage of being portrayed by the late Mr Andrew Lang, while Pingaud has treated the Count d'Antraigues. The French Divisional Police Chief Saint-Just has given to the world an account of the French Internal Spy System as it exists in our own day, and Doctor Fitzpatrick is the chief among many who have written of the British Secret Service, to the chapter concerning which we append a Home Office paper, issued in September 1914, which clearly shows that the British authorities were by no means uninformed or unmindful of the contemplated operations of the swarms of German spies who filled London hotels and lodging-houses at the opening of the War. Official alertness, it may also be said, was shown during the course of the campaign, as (to cite but one instance) when the Special Police Constables were mobilised on the night of the air raid on Sandringham and therearound, a fact which spoke eloquently for our system of counter-espionage.

With regard to the German System of Espionage, it must be said that while we do not accept everything that the arrogant Stieber claims for his organisation and himself, we are inclined to look upon Lanoir as being too much a hater of all things Prussian either to do justice to himself or to be fair to Stieber. In any case, we have supplemented the French writer's views by others emanating from Klembowsky, A. Froment, Tissot and various publicists well known in France. The work of Mr Graves we have read, and while admitting that he wins our sympathy as regards his perennial good humour and cleverness, we confess our total inability to "negotiate" (as he himself would probably say) his version of the instructions to the _Panther_ at Agadir, the same having really been conveyed by the very ordinary process of telegraphing from Berlin to the gunboat's commander by code to the _Fabra_ news agency at Madrid, whence the message travelled to Tangier and Agadir. In the pages of _The New York American_ Mr Graves's diplomatic work would certainly prove to be "just the goods," if we may judge by the printed European dispatches of that paper's ineffable correspondents. All his English countesses and peers have respectively the airs and manners of Chicago "store-ladies" and Buffalo drummers—exactly as the American yellow-paper requires them for home consumption.

Following is a short list of the principal publications to which the writer referred in the course of his work:—

_Allgemeine Zeitung_, old cuttings, dated 1818-1822.
Collier, Price, _Germany and the Germans_. 1913.
_Courrier du Bas Rhin._ 1853.
Crawford, Marion, _Venetian Gleanings_. 1905.
Dewees, F. P., _The Molly Maguires_. 1877.
Diffenbach, L., _Schulmeister_. 1879.
Fitzpatrick, Dr, _Secret Service under Pitt_. 1892.
_Fortnightly Review._ 1898, 1903, 1905.
Fouché, _Memoirs_. 1892.
Froment, A., _L'Espionnage Militaire_. 1897.
_Journal of the Roy. United Ser. Inst._, Dec. 1897.
Klembowsky, M., _L'Espionnage_. 1896.
Lanfrey, _Histoire de Napoleon_. 1826.
Lanoir, Paul, _The German Spy System_. 1910.
Lavallée, I., _Inquisitions_. 1810.
Le Caron, _Twenty-five Years in the Secret Service_. 1892.
Muller, Paul, _L'Espionnage sous Napoleon_. 1909.
Pingaud, _Un Agent Secret_. 1894.
_Quarterly Review._ 1898.
Rapp, General, _Memoirs_. 1825.
Rovigo (Savary), _Memoirs_. 1830.
Schulmeister, _Bruchstuecke_. 1816.
Stieber, _Memoirs_. 1877.
_The Chautauquan Magazine._ January 1887.
Thiers, _Histoire du Consulat_. 1868.
Tissot, V., _La Police Secrète_. 1884.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Frederick was childless.

[2] It has even been stated that the funds which enabled the so-called Suffragettes to carry on their recent militant propaganda were, for the greater part, supplied by Berlin, through private persons acting on behalf of its secret service. The identity of the real donors of very large sums given for the furtherance of the movement was said not to have been known even to the Suffragette leaders.

INDEX

A

Absalom, 29

Alexander the Great, 32

Alexander II. of Russia, 181

Alfred the Great, 123

Allen, Lieutenant, 118

Althorp Park, 132

American Civil War, 42, 287

American Secret Service, 283 _et seq._

Anarchist societies, 153

Anderson, Sir Robert, 312

André, Major John, 104 _et seq._

Andrieux, Prefect of Police, 153

Anglo-Russian War, 53

Antraigues, Comte d', 260, 261, 262

Aristagoras, 32

Arnold, Benedict, 100 _et seq._

Arthur, John, 42

Aubigny, Duchesse d', 128

Austerlitz, campaign of, 65, 71

B

Babcock, General, 293

Baden, duchy of, 61

Baker, Lafayette, 291

Balance of Power, 128

Barnett, John, 305

Belfort, town of, 62

Bernhardi, 161

Berthier, Marshal, 226, 304

Bertillon, Professor, 155

Biggar, Jos., 40

Bismarck, von, 175 _et seq._

Black Cardinals, 76

Black Hand Society, 96

Black Country, Westphalia, 134

Black Cabinet, 154

Bluntschli, 19

Boisdeffre, General de, 235

Boulanger, General, 152, 158, 159

Boyd, Belle, 290

Brandon, Captain, 134

Brevoort House, 290

Britain, cost of espionage, 136

British Museum Catalogue, 162

Burleigh, Lord, 126

C

Cæsar, 34

Campeggio, Cardinal, 124

Canning, Foreign Minister, 131

Caro, Elme, 230

Carrier-pigeons, 33, 144

Charles II., 128

Christ and the spies, 29

Churchill, John, 108

Clan-na-gael, 51, 53

Clapton, 105

Clinton, Sir H., 112

Clive, Robert, 59

Collier, Price, 167, 168, 203

Comédie Française, 221

Continental schools, 36, 208

_Courrier du Bas Rhin_, 68

Cromwell, Oliver, 128

_Cruciata_, 274

Customs, New York, 295

D

Darius, 32

Davitt, Mr, 54

Decker, von, 35

Delbena, 126

Delcassé, M., 149

De Piple, 72

Deville, 35

Diderot, 71

_Dossier_, 150, 151

Dreyfus case, 149

Dublin Castle, 133

Dunn, Mr Dick, 270

E

Education of German spy, 238, 244, 245, 246, 247

Egan, Mr Patrick, 52

Emperor Francis, 70

Empress Elizabeth, 257

Empson and Dudley, 123

Enghien, Duc d', 61, 62, 63

England's spies in Germany, 135

Eon, Chevalier d', 255 _et seq._

Erfurt, Congress of, 73, 74

Ernst, spy, 233

Esterhazy, Major, 154

Ettenheim, town of, 62

Ex-priests, German, 225

F

Fanaticism of spy, 25

Fenianism, 43, 44, 45, 48, 49

First Consul, 62

Fitzpatrick, Dr, 133

Ford, Mr A. Brendan, 53

Ford, Mr Patrick, 52

Forth Bridge, 238, 239

Fouché, 58, 59, 73, 124, 150

Fourès, Captain, 301

Fox, Charles James, 131

France, cost of espionage, 136

Franklin, Benjamin, 111

Frederick the Great, 37, 161 _et seq._

French Secret Service, the, 147, _et seq._

Frederick William, King, 171

Frontinus, 30

Fusiliers, Royal, 106

G

Gallifet, General de, 183

Gassicourt, M. de, 67

German Secret Service, 161 _et seq._

Geneva, university of, 105

"Germanising influences," 222

Germany, cost of espionage, 136

Gifford, spy, 127

Goethe, 23, 74

"Good old days," 127

Goven, Franklin, 94

Grant, General, 292

Grant, Mrs Colquhoun, 129

Graves, Mr, 229, 232, 239, 240

_Great Eastern_, 42

Grey, General, 109

H

Habsburgs, 37

Hale, Nathan, 79 _et seq._

_Halifax_, guard-ship, 88

Halifax, town, 83

Hannibal, 33, 34

Harden, Max, 265, 266

Hausmann, Baron, 293

Heath, General, 84

_Heimath_, 221

Helvetius, 71

Henry, Colonel, 149

Henry, John, 286

Herbesthal, 167

_Hermandad_, 274

Hibernians, A.O., of, 95

Hirtius, 33

Histiæus, 33

Holbach, 71

Home Office, 137, 138 _et seq._

Horace, Satires of, 125

Howe, General, 88, 109

Hundred Days, 77

Huntington Bay, 86

I

_Index_, 72

Infessura, 274

Inquisition, Spanish, 272

Intelligencer, the, 125

Invalides, les, 221

Ionia, 33

Ireland and Greece, 91, 92

_Irish World_, 53

J

Jameson, Colonel, 118

"J.B.," 126

Johnson, President, 291

Joseph, 29

Joshua, 29

Junot, General, 301

Justus Lipsius, 33

K

"King's Secret, The," 256

Kluck's cow, 220

Knowlton, Colonel, 84

L

Lachesnaie, 35

Lang, Andrew, 258

Lanoir, Paul, 189, 190, 215

Lassalle, General, 74

Launay, Comte d'Antraigues, 132

Lavallee, Jos., 273

Le Caron, 39 _et seq._, 133

Legion of Honour, 75

Le Meinau, 72

Lever, Charles, 130

Leveson-Gower, Lord G. L., 132

Lichfield, 106

Lockport (Illinois), 45

Long Island, 83

Lorrach, 63

Louis XIV., 38

Louis XV., 256

Louis XVIII., 260

Louise of Prussia, 74

Louise of Saxony, 265

M

Mæcenas, 125

Mack, Field-Marshal, 66

Mackenzie, Colin, 132

MacParlan, J., 90 _et seq._

Madison, President, 286

Manhattan, 83

Maria Edgeworth, 106

Marie Louise, 76

Mary Stuart, 126, 127

_Matinées du Roi de Prusse_, 161

Mazarin, Cardinal, 128

Megalomania of spy, 23

Meinau, M. de, 60

Meline, Monsieur, 149

Mexican War, 287

Meyn, painter, 37

_Mischianza_, 111

Mithridates, 30

"Molly Maguires," 90, 93

Moltke, von, 177

Mommsen, Professor, 193

Montesquieu, 71

Morin, 19

Murat, 75, 124

N

Napoleon, 23, 28, 37, 38, 64, 147, 148, 166, 193, 221, 226, 228, 298
_et seq._

Napoleon III., 77, 152

National Homing Union, 145

"Necklace" manœuvre, 70

Neu-Freistett, 60

New journalists, 57

New Haven (Connecticut), 82

New York, 84

_New York Times_, 250 _et seq._

_New York Gazette_, 285

Nietszche, 161

Norwalk, 86

"Number Seventy, Berlin," 235

O

O'Donovan Rossa, 52

O'Neill, General, 45 _et seq._

Ottawa, 51

P

Parnell Commission, 56

Paulding, Farmer, 117

Pennsylvania coal zones, 90

Peter the Great, will of, 162

_Petit Parisien_, 230

Philadelphia, 48, 108, 109, 110, 111

Phillips, spy, 127

Piggott, Richard, 39

Pingaud, biographer, 260

Pinkerton Agency, 95

Pitt, William, 130

Pius VII., 76

Polyænus, 29

Polybius, 33

Poore, Perley, 289

Portsmouth, Duchess of, 128

"Posen" case, the, 264

Poulet, 127

Pragmatism, 17

Prince of Wales, the, 54

Q

Quakers of Philadelphia, 112

Quebec, 108, 109

Queen Victoria, 54

R

Radet, General, 76

Rapp, General, 75

Red Man's Signals, 227

Reichstag appropriations, 174, 179, 186, 194, 249

"Reptile Press," 186

Rhodes Scholarships, 224

Rivington, James, 285

Robespierre, 130

Roman spies, 18

Roon, von, 184

Rulski, 69

Russia, cost of espionage, 136

Russia, system of espionage, 173

Russo-Irish Alliance, 53

S

Sainfoin, Derby winner, 269

Saint-Just, revolutionary, 130

Saint-Just, police chief, 148

Salaries of German agents, 240

Salic Law, 23

Savary, General, 60

Schulmeister, 58 _et seq._

Scipio Africanus, 18

_Scutula_, 32

_Secrets of German War Office_, 239

Sergeant, W., 110

Sertorius, 31

Seward, Anna, 106

Shenandoah station, 100

_Skutate_, 32

Smith, Sir Sidney, 301

Sneyd, Honoria, 106

Social transitions, 267

"Speak-easies," 96

Spencer, Lady Sarah, 132

Steinhauer, Dr, 229 _et seq._

Stendhal, 17

Stieber, 37, 161 _et seq._

Sudermann, H., 221

T

Tallmadge, Major, 120

Tausch Bureau, 266

_The Chautauquan_, 289

"The Prince," 269, 270

The Trebia, battle of, 33

Tilsit, Treaty of (1807), 131

_Times, The_, 39

Tissot, Victor, 189

Trench, Captain, 134

Turr, H., 238 _et seq._

U

Ulm, 70

V

Vattel, 79

Vaughan, Cardinal, 280

Voice, Napoleon's, 64

Voltaire, 71

W

Washington, General, 83

Wend, spy, 69

West Point, 114

Whigs, American, 113

"White Blouses," 152

William II., 161, 221, 265

William of Prussia, 177

Windell, spy, 232

Wireless Telegraph Act, 142

Wolfe, General, 107

Z

Zeppelin, secret visits, 231

* * * * *

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

Minor punctuation and printer errors repaired.

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_