The memoranda never reached the King, for he never asked to see them. The two versions of the scheme remained buried among the author's papers at Hanover for a century and a quarter; but Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt in 1798 led the British Government, which had received a copy of the larger document, to publish a summary in pamphlet form in 1803. When the French seized Hanover shortly afterwards, they obtained a copy of the Consilium Aegyptiacum, which was read by the First Consul.
IV. Louis XIV and Louis XV
A spirited foreign policy in the Levant was urged on Louis XIV in the same year 1672 by the French Ambassador at Constantinople, d'Arvieux, who was well acquainted with the Turkish Empire. The Turks, he complained, had permitted foreigners to enter and to trade with Turkey under the protection of other flags than that of France, had pillaged French subjects by land and sea, had imposed extra taxes on French goods, and had treated the King of France with disrespect by sending to him Ambassadors of lower grade than the French Ambassadors accredited to the Porte. It was time to show that these breaches of the Capitulations would no longer be tolerated.
"Your Majesty may bring the Grand Vizier and the Porte to reason," wrote d'Arvieux to Louis XIV, "without any other expense than that which you habitually incur in the Mediterranean. And, if you adopt my plan, Your Majesty will find the Turks ready to please you in all things and to renew the Capitulations according to your pleasure. Your Majesty has 15 men-of-war always cruising in the Mediterranean. They are enough for my purpose, but you can increase them to 20 if you will. You should then direct them to anchor unexpectedly at the entrance to the Dardanelles. Three ships of war and two fireships should then be sent to Princes' Islands, where the envoy who bears Your Majesty's demands should reside until they have been granted. If they resist, you will blockade the straits and in eight days there will be a famine in the capital, as they never have any store of provisions."
