But a new circumstance occurred, which distressed me
greatly; for I discovered, in the most satisfactory manner, that two out
of the six at the last committee were spies. They had come into the
society for no other reason than to watch and report its motions; and
they were in direct correspondence with the slave-merchants at Havre de
Grace. This matter I brought home to them afterwards, and I had the
pleasure of seeing them excluded from all our future meetings.
From this time I thought it expedient to depend less upon the committee,
and more upon my own exertions; and I formed the resolution of going
among the members of the National Assembly myself, and of learning from
their own mouths the hope I ought to entertain relative to the decision
of our question. In the course of my endeavours I obtained a promise
from the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, the Comte de Mirabeau the Abbe
Sieyes, Monsieur Bergasse, and Monsieur Petion de Villeneuve, five of
the most approved members of the National Assembly, that they would meet
me if I would fix a day. I obtained a similar promise from the Marquis
de Condorcet, and Claviere and Brissot, as members selected from the
committee of the Friends of the Negroes.
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