Chapter 212: Secret Reports

Chapter 210 The Secret Report
Knightsbridge, southeast corner of Hyde Park, Wellington’s private residence – 1 London, Apsley House.

The Duke of Wellington’s hand was resting on a highball glass, looking at Arthur, who had come to resume his duties, with a face full of surprise.

“Young man, I thought it would take a while for you to get something useful back for me, you got something so soon?”

Arthur smiled back, “A bit of unexpected joy, although it may not always come in handy, but given the increasingly pressing time until the conference, I think even the smallest news should be notified to you in a timely manner, after all, in your hands, sometimes just a little insignificant breakthrough is enough to be able to help Britannia gain great national benefits. ”

Hearing this, Duke Wellington couldn’t help but smile, “Still a really talkative young man, would you like something to drink? I would rather recommend Chateau Margaux’s Margaux Pavillon from Bordeaux.”

Arthur nodded his head and said, “I haven’t marched in France, so I don’t really know the drinks there, since you think this wine is good, I choose to believe you.”

The Duke of Wellington hummed a little tune in a good mood, raised his hand and took out a bottle of labeled white wine from the wine cabinet and poured two glasses, a glass was handed to Arthur and a glass was reserved for himself.

He leaned back in his sofa chair and sipped the wine, then asked with a smile, “Well, boy, tell me, what good news have you brought me.”

Arthur spoke, “I visited the Russian Embassy this morning, as per your orders, and met the Austrian Imperial Chancellor, Mr. Clemens Metternich, there.”

“Well …… Metternich ……” Duke Wellington clenched his chin, “I guessed early on that he would definitely go to Dorothea right away when he first arrived in London. I didn’t think I’d be right.”

Arthur heard the Duke said so, also not stupid to ask Wellington why so guess, but continued to state: “In addition, I also brought back in the embassy with a Russian style Austrian souvenirs.”

“A local specialty?” Hearing this, the Duke of Wellington couldn’t help but snicker, “Is this any sort of black talk from your Scotland Yard officers?”

Arthur smiled, “Not Scotland’s, but LPS’s. It’s just that I’ll tell you straight, I’ve got a bit of Mrs. Levine’s personal belongings.”

“Mrs. Levine’s personal effects?” Hearing this, the Duke of Wellington couldn’t help but laugh out loud, “Coincidentally, I have a copy here as well, it’s still close to me.”

Arthur was caught off guard by the Duke of Wellington, he was first stunned before reacting to the fact that the other party was telling a dirty joke.

He was crying or laughing for a moment, and only after holding his tongue did he pop out a sentence, “Your Excellency, the one I got, it’s not cloth.”

“Hmm?” Duke Wellington raised his eyebrows, “Not of cloth? That’s a novelty.”

Arthur emphasized, “To be precise, this personal item is not Mrs. Levine’s, but Mr. Metternich’s.”

“Huh?!” Hearing this, the sixty-something year old Duke almost spat out the wine he had in his mouth, “Arthur, you youngster, do you think I should praise you for your skill or say that you are young and unintelligent. You’d better take that kind of thing back, I don’t need that kind of collection.”

Seeing that things were getting darker and darker, Arthur hurriedly clarified righteously, “More accurately, this was given to Mrs. Levine by Metternich.”

“Oh, that’s okay.” Duke Wellington drew out his handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped his sweat: “Young man, although we Britons are more subtle in our speech, but in front of a soldier like me, it is better for you to pick the point in your speech. Your words startled me, and I thought you had done something immensely great.”

Arthur saw that the more he thought, the more crooked he became, and only hurriedly drew out the letterhead and translation on the desktop and pushed it over, “This is Metternich’s love letter to Mrs. Levine written in 1818, please take a look.”

“Love letter?”

The Duke of Wellington’s white eyebrows raised, the old man pulled open the drawer and took out a magnifying glass, squinting his eyes and savoring the original and translation of the letter from top to bottom: “Metternich’s writing is not bad, no wonder he can make a living in a city like Vienna, and it’s no wonder that so many ladies and young ladies would be attracted to him… …”

Arthur pretended that he didn’t hear the Duke’s literary appraisal, he was just stating the points he had put together a long time ago as planned.

“According to the report of the LPS special intelligence officer, we found only this letter in Mrs. Levine’s bedroom. But based on the information in the letter, we can reasonably deduce that Mr. Metternich must have written more than just this one love letter to Mrs. Levine.

But Mrs. Levine intentionally selected this letter for today’s meeting, and since this love letter was written in Brussels, Belgium, I reasonably suspect that Mr. Metternich and Mrs. Levine should have talked about the Belgian independence issue in today’s meeting, in addition to renewing their old friendship.

It is for this reason that I rushed over to report to you as soon as I learned the news. Although I don’t know exactly how far they talked, I think you might be able to take into account the fact that Austria and Russia are on the same side.”

Although Arthur said it euphemistically, the Duke of Wellington certainly understood what he meant.

Although the Tory Party had concerns about France’s July Revolution and Belgium’s independence, the Tory Party was at most only worried, while Russia and Austria were outright anxious.

As countries in the same European continent, these two European traditional authoritarian powers have always been on high alert for the wave of revolution.

And as a diehard fan of authoritarianism, it is not unusual for Metternich to intend to side with Russia against France and Belgium.

But although there has been a guess in advance, but can determine the real attitude of this Metternich is always good, because the Duke of Wellington tonight just about Metternich to have dinner, as a long time in the battlefield, the Duke of Wellington likes to fight this kind of battle is to know the root of the battle.

And as of now, he was in a situation where he was at an intelligence advantage, and the results of the battle were undefeated. With Arthur’s prior warning, he had already determined exactly which questions to ask and what tone to use when talking to Metternich tonight.

If Metternich didn’t budge an inch, the Duke of Wellington felt that he might just have to have a conversation with the powerful Austrian Prime Minister about the huge war debts that Austria owed during the Napoleonic Wars.

According to the Duke of Wellington’s understanding, Austria’s debt problem has reached the point where it is necessary to issue new debt to repay the interest on the old debt.

Admittedly, Russia could have eaten some of the new national debt for Austria, but a large portion of Austria’s old national debt was held by Britain.

But if Metternich, the old man, dares to show any semblance of a tough stance, the UK will dare to sell off the Austrian treasury bonds, depressing the issue price of their new treasury bonds and raising the cost of their treasury bond interest payments.

As long as the pinch is struck, the Duke of Wellington guarantees that the Austrians will not have a good Christmas for the next few years.

Of course, he did not intend to showdown with Metternich so soon, after all, Austria’s tough attitude is also Britain used to bargain with France.

Although Britain felt that Belgium could be independent or not, even if Belgium became independent, it could not become a pro-French regime.

Both Holland, and Belgium, had to become loyal little old brothers of Great Britain.

And that, in turn, was the focal point of the constant tug of war between him and the French ambassador to Britain, Talleyrand, during this time.

Now that Austria was taken care of, then all that was needed was to focus on thinking about how to deal with France and Russia next.

Talleyrand’s attitude in the past two days to see, France’s bottom line seems to be very clear, as long as the Netherlands let Belgium independence, other issues can be negotiated.

After all, after their defeat in the Napoleonic wars, they have been facing the problem of deep anti-french encirclement network, as long as they can tear a hole in the encirclement network, compared to before is already a huge progress.

But I’m afraid that the appetite of Tsarist Russia is not so good to satisfy, Nicholas I is a ruler with a strong desire for power and control, and the power of the Czarist Russia continues to move westward naturally want to smother France, the power of Western Europe in the encirclement network.

If Austria retreated, the attitude of Tsarist Russia might be loosened, and the rest would depend on how to negotiate terms.

However, just as Britain did not want a strong France, it also did not want a Russia that stretched across Eastern and Western Europe.

Originally see Russia’s Mediterranean fleet in the Dardanelles unimpeded is already difficult enough, and now they also intend to expand westward on land, Britain can not agree to anything.

The Duke of Wellington wondered if he could perhaps ask Foreign Secretary Palmerston to approach the Prussian delegation, or if he could ask King William IV of England to write a letter to King William I of Prussia?

Although the King of Prussia is a cousin of the King of Holland, but at any rate, our King William IV also has the name of the King of Hanover, Hanover is still part of the German Confederation.

If we talk about geography, Hanover and Prussia are closer than Holland than Prussia, right?
Duke Wellington thought of this, put down his goblet and got up, ”Arthur, this time I will trouble you. The matter of Metternich, I will report to the foreign ministry, if this London conference can be a complete success, there is certainly no lack of your help.”

Arthur also got up and said, “Your Excellency the Duke, this love letter is considered an unexpected pleasure. According to my plan, later this week, the LPS’s intelligence officers will go to the Russian Embassy again to try their luck. In order to distract the Russian mission, I just gave Mrs. Levine a few tickets for the concert today, and judging by her attitude, she will definitely attend this weekend.”

Saying this, Arthur fished out a few more tickets from his jacket pocket and placed them on the table, “If you are planning to meet Mrs. Levine in person, this weekend’s concert is also an opportunity. I’ve reserved the tickets here for you, or you can give them to a friend or family member if you don’t have the time. The concert will feature Mr. Moscheles, Mr. Mendelssohn and even Mr. Clementi, so it would be a bit of a shame to waste the tickets.”

“Clementi will appear?” Hearing this, the Duke of Wellington was first startled, then he picked up the tickets and scanned them, “It’s still a good concert indeed, the participants are all of a very high caliber!”

As he said this, the rest of his eyes suddenly glanced at Arthur’s name again, and the Duke couldn’t help but laugh, “What? You’re in there too?”

Arthur smiled, “I have to be in there, otherwise it would be too suspicious for me to send this ticket to Mrs. Levine. But don’t worry, although I don’t play very well, I can barely handle a song.”

Hearing this, the Duke logically slipped the ticket into his jacket pocket, “It’s fine if you can’t handle it, don’t you have that gramophone of some sort? Just bring it with you, I’m kinda curious about that gadget, is that thing really as amazing as everyone says? If it’s true, I’ll have to consider buying one some day.”

Hearing this, Arthur suddenly remembered what Wheatstone had mentioned to him before, and he spoke at the right time, “If you want to get one, I will send someone to deliver it to your house directly. Only, you may have to wait a little while, because the producer of the phonograph, Mr. Wheatstone, has recently been messed up because of the patent application and has been unable to focus on making the product.”

“Patent? Isn’t that easy?”

Wellington drew a quill from the table and casually wrote a note and handed it over, “You tell that Wheatstone to take this when he applies for the patent, and if anyone asks, just say that I sent him. In about a week, the patent will be done, and if it’s not possible to get stuck at His Majesty’s for a few days, three days will probably be enough to get this done. If you don’t get it done after the time limit, come over here and let me know, and I’ll personally ask the Ministry of the Interior and the Chancellor’s Office what the hell they’re up to.”

I’ve been feeling a little better for the past two days, so I’ll start by resuming 2 shifts of 6K+ per day lately. So far this month, I’ve shifted 127K, and I’ll slowly add more updates to follow, trying to make up for the 18W update this month.

(End of chapter)