by DAVID KAHN
158 Richelieu: Lettres, Instructions Diplomatiques et Papiers d’État du Cardinal Richelieu, ed. Denis L. M. Avenel, Collection de documents inédits sur l’histoire de France, lère série: Histoire Politique (Paris: Ministère de l’Instruction Publique: Imprimerie Impériale, 1853-1877), at IV, 569, for “It is necessary” and VII, 56, for “I saw.” Other references to Rossignol at I, xxiii-xxiv, VI, 401, 695, 710, 774, VII, 57, 70.
158 deathbed recommendation: Perrault, 57.
158 master of Chamber of Accounts: H. Constant d’Yanville, Chambre des Comptes de Paris (Paris: J.-B. Dumoulin, 1866-1875), 541, showing coat of arms, 984.
158 Mazarin forwards letter: Lettres de Cardinal Mazarin pendant son ministère, ed. Adolphe Chéruel, Collection de documents inédits sur l’histoire de France, lère série: Histoire Politique (Paris: Ministère de l’Instruction Publique: Imprimerie Nationale, 1872-1906), VII, 517. Other references to Rossignol at II, 202-203, VI, 47, VII, 636, VIII, 595, 611.
158 room near king’s study: Arvengas, 512.
158 marriage: Bois-Robert, note at 83.
158 Boisrobert: Tallement, 589; Emile Magne, Le plaisant Abbé de Boisrobert (Paris: Mercure de France, 1909), at 151-153, 302-305. Poem to Madame Rossignol is Épistre XXXII, at Bois-Robert, 212-214. Poems of unhappiness and thanks, both addressed to Rossignol, are Épistres IX and X, at Bois-Robert, 81-88, 89-94. épistre XXIX is at 200-202. Bois-Robert also refers to Rossignol in Épistres XXVIII, XXX, and XXXVI.
159 Épistre 29: English verse translation by Jenny Hauck.
159 Saint-Simon: Duc de Saint-Simon, Mémoires, ed. A. de Boislisle, Les Grands Écrivains de la France (Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1897), XIII, 149-150.
160 Mazarin regrets, “for the insult”: Mazarin, VIII, 727, 768.
160 largesse: Tallement, I, 257; Saint-Simon, note at 150.
160 “in a fashion so marvelous”: Fletcher Pratt, Secret and Urgent (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1939), 128-129, from Bazeries, 45.
160 “rossignol” in 1406: Pierre Guirard, L’ Argot, Que sais-je, No. 700 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1956), at 11.
160 Albi neighbors: Tallement, 257.
161 two-part nomenclators: based upon examination of several nomenclators of the time. Bazeries, 45, credits him with this invention.
161 Louis XIV visit: Perrault, 58; Arvengas, 515, describing a painting of the event.
161 death: Saint-Simon, note at 149. Rossignol was buried in a chapel he built at the Palais episcopale in his native Albi.
162 tutored his son: Saint-Simon, 150, and note at 149.
162 “intriguer, very ugly:” Père Léonard de Saint-Catherine in his manuscript “Families de Paris” (Archives nationales, MM 827, at f. 109), cited in Saint-Simon, XIII, Appendix V, at 525.
162 Sévigné and Dangeau: Eugène Vaillé, Le Cabinet Noir (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1950), 77. Information on cryptology is scattered throughout the 408 pages of this scholarly work.
162 Mercure Galant: (October, 1705), 232-237 at 235 for “The King himself…”
162 “he became adept”: Saint-Simon, 150.
162 Bonaventure’s sons: Saint-Catherine; Yanville, 984.
162 Vimbois and La Tixeraudière: Bazeries, 48.
162 Nancre: Vaillé, 72-3.
162 Luillier: Saint-Simon, note at 150.
162 frequent changes, Louvois in 1676 and 1690: Vaillé, 72-74.
163 Louis in 1711: unpublished letter of Voysin, dated at Marly, May 6, 1711, in Archives Nationales, Dépot général de la Guerre, A 1-2335, at 299, kindly communicated by Lieutenant Colonel R. Léger, formerly chief of the French Army cipher service.
163 Louis XV nomenclators: unpublished study by Léger, of the nomenclators dating from 1709 to 1760 in the archives of the Ministère de la Guerre, A 4 101.
163 Georgel: Duc de Broglie, Le secret du roi: Correspondance secrète de Louis XV avec ses agents diplomatiques 1752-1774, 3rd ed. (Paris: Calmann Lévy, 1879), at II, 514-519. The pertinent portion of Georgel’s Mémoires is reprinted in Correspondance secrète inédite de Louis XV sur la politique étrangère, ed. M. E. Boutaric (Paris: Henri Plon, 1866), at II, 378-382.
163 Vienna best: James W. Thompson and Saul K. Padover, Secret Diplomacy: A Record of Espionage and Double-Dealing, 1500-1815 (London: Jarrolds, Ltd., 1937), at 117.
163 Austrian cipher bureau: F. Stix, “Zur Geschichte und Organisation der Wiener Geheimen Ziffernkanzlei (von ihren Anfangen bis zum Jahre 1848),” Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Instituts für Geschichtsforschung, LI (1937), 132-160.I am indebted to Maurits de Vries for an impromptu oral translation of this important article.
164 British ambassador complains: Padover, 117.
164 “our ciphers of 1200”: dispatch of Prince de Rohan, July 4, 1774, in Boutaric, at II, 384-385.
165 Koch letters: Correspondance Secrète entre le Comte A[nton]. W[enzel]. Kaunitz-Rietberg, ambassadeur impérial à Paris, et le Baron Ignaz de Koch, secrétaire de l’Impératrice Marie-Thérèse, 1750-1752, ed. Hans Schlitter (Paris: E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie., 1899), at 117, 125. Other references to cryptanalyzed correspondence at 196, 137, 144, 264.
165 bases of strategy: Rohan in Boutaric, II, 385.
166 Wallis biography: DNB; Encyclopaedia Britannica.
166 “adding withall,” other early solutions: John Wallis, “A Collection of Letters and other Papers, which were at severall times intercepted, written in Cipher,” 1653, Oxford University, Bodleian Library, Ms. e Mus. 203, in preface. This preface has been reprinted in John Davys, An Essay on the Art of Decyphering (London: Gulliver & Clarke, 1737), at 9-23 as “A Discourse of Dr. Wallis.” References to this hereafter will be as “Discourse.” It might be noted that in 1961 and 1962 the Bodleian acquired two more Wallis manuscripts: Ms. Eng. misc. c. 475, essentially a copy by Wallis of his “Collection,” and Ms. Eng. misc. c. 382, a volume, 323 ff., of Wallis’ own copies of his solutions of political intercepts, nearly all French, from June 14, 1689, to August 29, 1703. I regret I saw this extremely valuable volume too late for use in my text.
166 “made known to me”: C. H. Firth, “Thomas Scot’s Account of his Actions as Intelligencer during the Commonwealth,” English Historical Review, XLV (January, 1897), 116-126 at 121.
167 self-taught: “Discourse,” 13-14.
167 calculating feats: W. W. Rouse Ball, Mathematical Recreations & Essays, revised by H. S. M. Coxeter, 11th ed. (London: Macmillan, 1942), at 351.
167 Aubrey: Brief Lives, ed. Oliver L. Dick (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1957), lxxxix.
167 Nottingham in 1689: David Eugene Smith, “John Wallis as a Cryptographer,” Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, XXIV (1917), 83-96 at 87. This reprints some of Wallis’ important letters from his “Letter-Book,” Add. Ms. 32,499, which also includes many solutions.
168 “seven weeks”: reprinted Wallis letter, Monthly Magazine (October 1, 1802), 252-253 at 252. 168 waiting messenger: reprinted Nottingham and Wallis letters, Monthly Magazine (June 1, 1802), 446-447. The issue of July 1, 1802, publishes, at 560-561, another Wallis letter.
168 effects of his solutions: Smith, 87, 90-91.
168 no publicity: Smith, 87.
168 prowess: DNB for gold chain, which is shown in portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller, the court painter; Smith, 91; and “Letter-Book,” ff. 301-305, 307-314, for medal.
169 Leibnitz: Davys, 30; Smith, 82. The correspondence is reprinted in Wallis, Opera mathematica (Oxoniae, 1699), III, 674, 687, 688, 693, 695. This gives, at III, 659-672, two solutions of nomenclators, but no cryptanalytic details. For Leibnitz’ interest in cryptology, see references in Louis Davillé, Leibniz Historien: Essai sur l’activité et la méthode historiques de Leibniz (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1909), 500, 502, 607.
169 grandson: Smith, 83-84; Great Britain, Public Record Office, Calendar of Treasury Papers for 1697-1701/2, ed. Joseph Redington (London: Longman & Co., 1871), 465.
169 Blencowe: DNB; Kenneth Ellis, The Post
Office in the Eighteenth Century: A Study in Administrative History, University of Durham Publications (London: Oxford University Press, 1958), 128. The footnotes in this 176-page book are a rich source of leads to further study of British cryptanalysis in the 1700s.
169 Keill: DNB; Ellis, 128.
170 Willes: Ellis, 128-130; Stephen Hyde Cassan, Lives of the Bishops of Bath and Wells (London: C. & J. Rivington, 1829), 166-170; Great Britain, Public Record Office, Calendar of Treasury Papers preserved in Her Majesty’s Public Record Office, 1714-1719, ed. Joseph Redington (London: Longmans & Co., 1883), 206.
170 Swedish plot: Ellis, 128; Basil Williams, Stanhope: A Study in Eighteenth-Century War and Diplomacy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932), 246.
170 Atterbury: DNB under Atterbury and James Francis Edward Stuart (the would-be James III); Great Britain, Parliament, Journals of the House of Lords, XXII (1722-1726), 150-188 at 152 for deposition and 183 for May 7; other testimony at 162, 170, 172, 173, 184, 186, 188.
171 Willes family: Ellis, 129-130. The graves of Bishop Willes and his sons Edward and Francis form part of the flooring of Westminster Abbey’s north ambulatory just east of its intersection with the nave. Add. Mss. 45, 518-545, 523, the Willes papers, throw additional light on their cryptologic activities.
171 other cryptanalysts: Ellis, 129-130, 133.
171 Secret Office: Ellis, 65, 69.
171 Bode: Ellis, 66, 81, 95, 105, 76.
171 legality: Ellis, 62-63; Great Britain, Parliament, Report of the Committee of Privy Councillors appointed to inquire into the interception of communications, October 1957 (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1957), esp. Part I, “The authority of the Secretary of State to intercept communications,” 7-15.
172 Decyphering Branch: Ellis, 126 for location; 67 for funds; 75, 152 for security; 74 for Nienburg; 71 for imported cryptanalysts and royal interest; 70 for cribs; 73 for output.
172 public awareness of interception: Thomas E. May, The Constitutional History of England (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1912), at II, 153-156.
172 volume of solutions: Ellis, 73; Add. Mss. 32,258 to 32,303, which are the solutions, keys, and worksheets of the cryptanalysts; Ellis, letter, July 11, 1962, on delays in solutions.
172 read by king: Ellis, 70; Add. Ms. 24,321, ff. 88-105.
172 uses of cryptanalyzed documents: Ellis, 70-74.
173 Seven Years’ War: H. W. V. Temperley, “Pitt’s Retirement from Office, 5 Oct. 1761,” English Historical Review, LXXXI (April 1906), 327-330 at 329; Philip Yorke, The Life and Correspondence of Philip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (Cambridge: University Press, 1913), at III, 274-279; Thomas Babington Macaulay, “The Earl of Chatham,” Critical and Historical Essays, I, Everyman’s Library, No. 225 (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1961), 404-478 at 423, 425.
173 “owe the Esteem”: Callières, 195. A number of diplomatic manuals of this period discuss the importance of ciphers. See, for example, Juan Antonio de Vera y Zúñiga, Conde de la Roca, El Embaxador (Sevilla, 1620), trans, by Lancelot as Le Parfait Ambassadeur (Paris, 1642), Book III, 467-474.
173 effect of economics: K. L. Ellis, “British Communications and Diplomacy in the Eighteenth Century,” Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research [London University], XXXI (November, 1958), 159-167 at 163-164. The extensive footnotes here are, like those in Ellis’ book, a very rich source of leads to the effects of cryptology.
174 diplomats’ cryptographic errors: Ibid., 165-167.
174 “a bishop charged”: Vaillé, 185-186.
174 Voltaire: article “Poste” in his Dictionnaire Philosophique.
174 Church incident: Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons), III (1951), 544-552, with pictures of cryptogram following 541; John Bakeless, Turncoats, Traitors and Heroes (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1959), at 9-23. The original cryptogram is in The Library of Congress, Papers of George Washington, XVIII, 119, solution at 120.
174 biographical data: DAB and Freeman, III, 474-475, for Church. DAB for West. DAB for Gerry. Sylvester Judd, History of Hadley (Northampton, Mass.: Metcalf & Co., 1863), 556, and Harvard University, Quinquennial Catalogue, for Porter.
176 Benedict Arnold: Carl Van Doren, Secret History of the American Revolution (New York: Viking Press, 1941), 196-198 for Odell and Stansbury; 200, 440, 442 for Blackstone; 441, 449 for Bailey’s Dictionary; 459-460 for unidentified small dictionary. Van Doren gives the decoded correspondence; the original coded documents are in the University of Michigan, William L. Clements Library, Sir Henry Clinton Papers.
177 superencipherment by adding 7: Howard H. Peckham, “British Secret Writing in the Revolution,” Quarterly Review of the Michigan Alumnus, XLIV (Winter, 1938), 126-131, at 130.
177 Woodhull and Townsend nomenclator: Morton Pennypacker, General Washington s Spies on Long Island and in New York (Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society, 1939), 209, 252, 218; photograph of part of code opposite 218.
177 invisible ink: Pennypacker, 51-52, for Jay and Washington letters, 61 for cover-text and blank sheets, 17 for Washington’s appreciation; Sanborn C. Brown and Elbridge W. Stein, “Benjamin Thompson and the First Secret-Ink Letter of the American Revolution,” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, XL (January-February, 1950), 627-636. Victor Hugo Paltsits, “The Uses of Invisible Ink for Secret Writing during the American Revolution” [The New York Public Library] Bulletin, XXXIX (May, 1935), 361-364, has some additional information.
178 British systems: Peckham; Bakeless, 148-150, 269-270. Originals, including Clinton grille, in Clinton Papers.
180 Lovell: DAB; Peckham, 128; Bakeless, 88; Letters of Members of the Continental Congress, ed. Edmund C. Burnett (Carnegie Institution of Washington: Washington, 1921-1936), note at VI, 328. Referred to hereafter as Letters.
181 Lovell endorses Lee proposal: Edmund C. Burnett, “Ciphers of the Revolutionary Period,” The American Historical Review, XXII (January, 1917), 329-334, at 330.
181 Gates and Adams systems: Burnett, 331; Letters, IV, 84, 155.
181 Randolph-Madison: Irving Brant, James Madison (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1941-1961), at II, 440; Burnett, 332, 331; Letters, VI, 332, 383, 452.
182 Greene intercepts: Letters, VI, 224 and note. I reconstructed the alphabet and system from the intercepts in NA, Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Item 51, “Intercepted Letters, 1775-1781,” I, ff. 705-739. The Papers have been issued by NA as Microcopy No. 247; these documents are on Roll 65.
182 “It is not improbable”: Letters, VI, 223-224.
182 “My secretary has taken”: Letters, VI, 224.
183 recovery of Clinton letters: Journal of Elias Boudinot, quoted in Letters, VI, 239-240; letters of McKean to Washington, Letters, VI, 237-240, for “by means of a little address” and “the beach is so extensive.”
183 “I found … Entick’s:” Letters, VI, 241.
183 same alphabets: a copy of Clinton to Cornwallis, September 24, 1781, in enciphered form, is in the Clinton Papers. Test shows it to be written in the same alphabet, at a = 7.
184 Clinton letter: Earl Cornwallis, An Answer to that Part of the Narrative of Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Clinton which relates to the Conduct of Earl Cornwallis during the Campaign in North America in the Year 1781 (London: J. Debrett, 1783), at 202-203.
184 “Since I wrote”: Letters, VI, 241.
184 “My intelligence was true”: Letters, VI, 239.
184 “The British General”: McKean to deGrasse, October 14, 1781, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, McKean Papers.
184 Washington loses “not an instant”: Papers of George Washington, CLXXXVI, 16, 17.
184 Livingston forms: Burnett, 332.
184 Madison-Jefferson cipher-code: Burnett, 333.
185 Madison stares: Brant, III, 379.
185 Mr. Monroe’s cypher: Burnett, 333-334.
185 Franklin cipher: Burnett, 330-331; Americ
an Philosophical Society, Franklin Papers, L (i), 24; Edward Koch, Cryptography or Cipher Writing (Belleville, Ill.: Buechler Publishing Co., 1936; revised 1942), at 58-61.
185 Carmichael: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1950-), at VIII, 251.
186 French-English lexicon: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, VI, xi, 226.
186 Lee brothers: Burnett, 330; Letters, III, 231.
186 Burr: Walter Falvius McCaleb, The Aaron Burr Conspiracy (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1903), at 73-75; Thomas Perkins Abernethy, The Burr Conspiracy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954), at 59-62, 148, 176, 228, 239, 248; Nathan Schachner, Aaron Burr: A Biography (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1937), at 322-323, with reproduction of first page of the letter; The Trial of Col. Aaron Burr, T. Carpenter, reporter (Washington City, 1808), at III, Appendix L; Parke-Bernet Galleries, Catalog 1878, Item 29, for cipher disk and letters of 1800 and 1804, which were solved in 1959 by Miss Barbara Harris of the New York Cipher Society.
187 solutions of American correspondence: Add. Ms. 24,321, at ff. 24-28 for white ink, ff. 32-35 for businessman’s letter, ff. 62-70 for Lafayette letter, ff. 86v, 106 for overboard, ff. 88-105 for seen by king; Add. Ms. 32,303, ff. 8-45, solution of three-part correspondence, ff. 46-52 for Spanish.
187 shrinkage of Decyphering Branch: Ellis, 130-131.
187 France not idle: Brant, VI, 64, with photostat of solution in Library of Congress, France, Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Correspondance Politique, États-Unis, LXVIII, f. 344. For Napoleon’s use of the black chamber, see Gen. [Charles-Tristan] Montholon, Recits de la Captivité de l’Empereur Napoléon à Sainte-Hélène (Paris: Paulin, 1847), entry for January 18, 1816.
188 outcry over opening of mail: Howard Robinson, The British Post Office: A History (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1948), ch. 24; Ellis, 138-142.
