He Walked Around the Horses | Page 9

signed with his signature, it
is also sealed with my seal, which has not been out of my personal keeping in the ten
years that I have been Chancellor here. In fact, the word "impossible" can be used to
describe the entire business. It was impossible for the man Benjamin Bathurst to have
entered the inn yard--yet he did. It was impossible that he should carry papers of the sort
found in his dispatch case, or that such papers should exist--yet I am sending them to you
with this letter. It is impossible that Baron von Stein should sign a paper of the sort he did,
or that it should be sealed by the Chancellery--yet it bears both Stein's signature and my
seal.
You will also find in the dispatch case other credentials, ostensibly originating with the
British Foreign Office, of the same character, being signed by persons having no
connection with the Foreign Office, or even with the government, but being sealed with
apparently authentic seals. If you send these papers to London, I fancy you will find that
they will there create the same situation as that caused here by this letter of safe-conduct.
I am also sending you a charcoal sketch of the person who calls himself Benjamin
Bathurst. This portrait was taken without its subject's knowledge. Baron von Krutz's
nephew, Lieutenant von Tarlburg, who is the son of our mutual friend Count von
Tarlburg, has a little friend, a very clever young lady who is, as you will see, an expert at
this sort of work: she was introduced into a room at the Ministry of Police and placed
behind a screen, where she could sketch our prisoner's face. If you should send this
picture to London, I think that there is a good chance that it might be recognized. I can
vouch that it is an excellent likeness.
To tell the truth, we are at our wits' end about this affair. I cannot understand how such
excellent imitations of these various seals could be made, and the signature of the Baron
von Stein is the most expert forgery that I have ever seen, in thirty years' experience as a
statesman. This would indicate careful and painstaking work on the part of somebody;
how, then, do we reconcile this with such clumsy mistakes, recognizable as such by any
schoolboy, as signing the name of Baron Stein as Prussian Chancellor, or Mr. George
Canning, who is a member of the opposition party and not connected with your
government, as British Foreign secretary.
[Illustration: 25 NOVEMBER 1808]
These are mistakes which only a madman would make. There are those who think our

prisoner is mad, because of his apparent delusions about the great conqueror, General
Bonaparte, alias the Emperor Napoleon. Madmen have been known to fabricate evidence
to support their delusions, it is true, but I shudder to think of a madman having at his
disposal the resources to manufacture the papers you will find in this dispatch case.
Moreover, some of our foremost medical men, who have specialized in the disorders of
the mind, have interviewed this man Bathurst and say that, save for his fixed belief in a
nonexistent situation, he is perfectly sane.
Personally, I believe that the whole thing is a gigantic hoax, perpetrated for some hidden
and sinister purpose, possibly to create confusion, and to undermine the confidence
existing between your government and mine, and to set against one another various
persons connected with both governments, or else as a mask for some other conspiratorial
activity. Only a few months ago, you will recall, there was a Jacobin plot unmasked at
Köln.
But, whatever this business may portend, I do not like it. I want to get to the bottom of it
as soon as possible, and I will thank you, my dear sir, and your government, for any
assistance you may find possible.
I have the honor, sir, to be, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera,
Berchtenwald

FROM BARON VON KRUTZ, TO THE COUNT VON BERCHTENWALD. MOST
URGENT; MOST IMPORTANT. TO BE DELIVERED IMMEDIATELY AND IN
PERSON REGARDLESS OF CIRCUMSTANCES.
28 November, 1809
Count von Berchtenwald:
Within the past half hour, that is, at about eleven o'clock tonight, the man calling himself
Benjamin Bathurst was shot and killed by a sentry at the Ministry of Police, while
attempting to escape from custody.
A sentry on duty in the rear courtyard of the Ministry observed a man attempting to leave
the building in a suspicious and furtive manner. This sentry, who was under the strictest
orders to allow no one to enter or leave without written authorization, challenged him;
when he attempted to run, the sentry fired his musket at him, bringing him down. At the
shot, the Sergeant of the Guard rushed