THE END OF THE RUSSIAN PROTECTORATE 411j'honore votre roi et votre Nation, et vous le leur direz. Toujours, il restera vrai que je
desire que vous conserviez souvenir et affection pour votre Ami,
Stanislas Auguste Roi. *
Meanwhile, Gardner constantly begged London for an advance to pay off his
creditors. He had been feeding three hundred refugees in the embassy, and had
never received the salary for his previous post as Governor of Hurst Castle in
- It was three years before Canning at the Treasury relented, and a payment
of £2,000 was approved. Gardiner's final communication from Warsaw is dated
11 December 1797. In 1798, he proceeded to Berlin where he deposited the
archives of the Warsaw Legation with the British ambassador to Prussia. At that
point, the last mission of a diplomat accredited to the 'Most Serene Republic'
finally closed. The Republic had been dead and indecently buried for three years
past.
* Dear Gardiner, As my function, and your own at my side appear to be finishing very shortly,
and as I no longer hope to see you, I am obliged at least to say Adieu, and that from the depth
of my heart. I shall always keep a place for you there until I die, and I hope indeed that we
shall at least be reunited where, I believe, honest souls and good hearts should be together
for ever ... It will always be true that I love and honour your King and your Nation, and
you will tell them so. It will always be true that I would wish you to preserve in memory and
affection your Friend,
Stanislas-August, King.'^5