Mirabcmi s Secret Mission to Berlin 2 finance at heavy cost to his pocket and to that of the King. Angered at the unexpected and fatal result of the pamphleteer's eloquence, Calonne turned furiously against Mirabcau, and the latter, for his own protection, prepared a violent pamphlet against the minister, showing the latter's financial iniquities in the most merciless light. Armed with this unpublished tirade, as with a loaded pistol held at the controller's head, Mirabeau, with his powerful backing, was in a position to make terms. It was decided that he should leave Paris ; his services being no longer urgently required, it was as well to utilize his talents in some new direction. This was what the bankers' group, or let us say Panchaud, Claviere, Talleyrand, Lauzun, arranged, with the consent of the pamphleteer. He was to go to Berlin where, through the relations of the Amis Reunis, a sect of Freemasons concerning which something more will appear presently, they had a secret means of acting. Mirabeau was to spy out the land, — politically, for the benefit of Calonne and the government, — financially, for that of his friends who had their eyes fixed on Fred- erick the Great's hoarded millions, and vaguely contemplated the establishment of a bank at Berlin. In addition to these objects, in which others were interested, Mirabeau may be conjectured to have had in mind that he might find, to his own profit, some opening suitable to his talents in the Prussian administration, that he might reveal himself in so brilliant a light as to force his way into the French diplomatic service, or that he might, at the worst, find new material on which to found a new series of his ever flowing publi- cations. Mirabeau left France on his German adventure at the end of the year 1785. Mr. Welschinger states that his only letter of recom- mendation was one from Vergennes, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to Esterno, French ambassador at Berlin. This statement must be taken for what it is worth, and cannot be accepted as correct from the narrow standpoint of strict proof It is more than probable that Mirabeau was furnished with at least equally important recommenda- tions from the French bankers to their German correspondents and from the Amis Reunis to the highest masonic and other secret circles at Berlin. Besides this, he was already in close relations with Major Mauvillon, with whom he was collaborating a history of Frederick the Great ; this officer was a prominent " Illumine," and it is noticeable that among others of the Frenchman's earliest acquaint- ances in Germany may be noted the names of such well-known " Illumines" as Charles von Struensee, Nicolai, Luchet, and others ; it was the latter who wrote the Essai si/r les Illiinihics that has been wrongly ascribed to Mirabeau. In addition to these already suffi-
