[Extract]
Monseigneur I have neglected nothing, as I have had the honour of promising you, in order to discover what could have given rise to what has been reported in the public papers, that one or two French officers had passed over to the Anglo-Americans. I conferred the day before yesterday with a captain of the merchant service here who has arrived from St. Domingo, and who is an intelligent man, without letting him know the object of my cunosity. He informed me, Monseigneur, that a German baron, whose name he cannot remember, and who, he thinks, was formerly in the service of Prussia, and wore the red ribbon [Order of St. Louis], had passed over to St. Domingo on a vessel from Havre. He says he saw him two or three times. This officer embarked at St. Nicolas Mole, a free port of St. Domingo, on an Anglo-American vessel, which safely carried him to Philadelphia, where he was received with acclamation, because he has served in the Cavalry, and they very much wanted to have some officer experienced in this direction, which is very little known to them. 2 This appears to me, Monseigneur, to explain what you desired to know. Moreover I think the Count d'Ennery will have informed M. de Sartine about it, or the Count de St. Germain. If he has not done so, the name of the officer might be found out at Havre, as he embarked there.
Nantes, 14th May 1776.
