Traces the origins of the British secret service to the turbulent aftermath of the French revolution, when Pitt's government, concerned to forestall civil unrest in England, set uppolice surveillance to counteract immigration and sedition.

"Something rare in the study of a period or a subject: a genuinely substantial addition to knowledge, of a kind that will henceforth need to be taken fully into account in any study of the British conduct of the great French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars." - John Ehrman. "A tour de force of research, an essential document for future students of the subject." - John Le Carre. Elizabeth Sparrow traces the origins of the British secret service to the turbulent aftermath of the French revolution, when Pitt's government, concerned to forestall civil unrest in England, set uppolice surveillance to counteract immigration and sedition. Close study of hitherto unknown Aliens Office documents reveals the expansion of this activity into a foreign secret service, the world of the Scarlet Pimpernel, drawing on an international intelligentsia to infiltrate the French revolutionary government and subsequently, as his domination of Europe seemed ever more certain, Napoleon's military machine. Elizabeth Sparrow is an independent scholar, author of a number of articles on the early history of the British secret service.

Part 1 Counter-Revolution, London 1792-1794: initiation
the police and the alien office. Part 2 For the king, without the king, 1793-1797: the Swiss agency - peace proposals, the secret memoir 1794, the Swiss agency
the Paris agency - the gentlemen of Verona 1795, the Paris agency 1795
general de Honnetes Gens
the Archi Pirates
the Paris prisons - hostages 1796, bribery
betrayal -arrests, double agents, 18 fructidor 1797. Part 3 Escapes and assassinations, 1797-1801: sequel -apres le coup, Pitt's under-game
Swabia and Switzerland - the Swabian agency, assassination plans, the Swiss committee
the Scarlet Pimpernel - rival agencies
Bonaparte - eastern dreams, 1799 and all that, consuls and committee 1800, the Rue Nicaise
assassination of Paul I. Part 4 King versus emperor: the peace of Amiens -reorganization 1801, peace is it? the grand conspiracy - organization 1802-1802, disintegration 1803-1804. Part 5 Europe reorganized, 1805-1815: past times and future plans - a reckoning 1804-1805, 1805-1807
European emperors - transition, Napoleon's Europe 1806-1812
plus ca change 1807-1809
the new Europeans - central europe, Peninsula 1809-1814
the king makers - who would be a king? to be or not to be - a king.