I whose name is underlined, so declare to his Excellency the General Admiral Apraxin that on the 9th of May last part, the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Townsend did give me permission when a favourable opportunity should present to signify to his Excellency that His Majesty the King of Great Britain was at all times ready to come to a reconciliation with Her Majesty of Russia, and that both His Majesty as well as Lord Townsend would take all opportunities of expressing their gratefulness of his Excellency’s goodness showed to such of His Majesty’s subjects as obtained a due sense of their allegiance to their lawful sovereign whilst under his Excellency’s command.
Privately John Deane agonised over the potentially difficult position the unsanctioned letter put him in. He worried that having appeased one benefactor in agreeing to Apraxin’s gentle demand he had offended another in going beyond the authority ceded to him by Townsend. Deane left the letter with Apraxin and returned to his own boat. Apraxin sent his steward to Count Tolstoi to prepare the way for Captain John Deane.
Deane had yet to set foot on Russian soil and his mission had already been severely compromised. He had made a tactical blunder by refusing to present his commission to Saunders when he demanded to see it. One can only assume that animosity had prevented Deane from putting his old enmities aside and taking a more pragmatic course of action for the sake of his mission. As far as Deane was concerned, the mistake had earned him the initial suspicion of Admiral Apraxin. What had saved him was the old affection between the two men. But Apraxin was still a servant of Russia and Deane’s behaviour had been suspicious. In Deane’s own mind, despite the genuine bond between the two men, the only way he could secure Apraxin’s support was to write a letter he had no authority to write. And much as Deane would question his own actions in those first few days his situation would have been greatly improved had Townsend given him official documentation. Townsend was not incompetent, inexperienced in foreign affairs or negligent, but the oversight seemed foolish. It appeared that Townsend had gambled on Deane’s quiet entry into Russia. Deane was supposed to have approached Apraxin secretly and talked with initial freedom, one ally to another, about a cause to which both men were sympathetic. Apraxin was to have paved the way for Deane in St Petersburg, accruing allies for reconciliation between Russia and Great Britain before internal tensions could escalate and lines were publicly drawn in the sand. Diplomatic papers were seemingly unnecessary. As far as Townsend was concerned Deane was his own flesh and blood epistle, known and read by Apraxin through years of faithful prior service. But Deane’s first meeting had been anything but secret. Saunders had been there and his presence and immediate challenge had changed the nature of the negotiations. It had placed a barrier in front of Apraxin that the admiral could not afford to overlook.
Deane was beginning to realise that Saunders’ presence was clearly not a coincidence. Saunders had known that Deane was coming. Deane was aware that he had been closely observed, at least from the moment his ship had entered Kronslot and possibly even before that. Part of Townsend’s brief to John Deane had been to ‘transmit whatever intelligence he may be able to get for His Majesty’s service’. The presence and foreknowledge of so many enemies in Kronslot was crucial and disturbing information that fed into Deane and Townsend’s worst fears; that Jacobites were embedded in Russian affairs, powerful and organised with sophisticated networks of intelligence.
Although Deane’s experience and knowledge of Russian affairs was peerless, the levels of hatred that still festered towards him potentially neutered any advantage Townsend may have hoped to gain by employing him as the king’s man in Russia. It seems impossible to imagine Townsend being so naive as to misjudge Russian animosity to Deane’s advent so disastrously. The hostile reception did not surprise John Deane. He had not wanted to come back to Russia. He was perfectly aware of the animosity that still existed toward him: ‘It was impossible for any person not present to believe with what bitterness they had persecuted me’. The problem seemed to reside in Deane’s paymasters refusing to believe him, or else John Deane’s own reluctance to tell them the entire truth for fear of not being believed.
John Deane prepared to leave Kronslot and meet Count Tolstoi. Deane’s departure was further delayed, which afforded him another opportunity to talk to Apraxin. Captain Commodore Peter Bredale was present for a short while. Deane seemed to like Bredale, for the Norwegian had opposed Ivan Sinavin, a Russian whom Deane had particularly despised. When Bredale left the room, Apraxin and Deane’s conversation became more intimate and personal. Both men drank coffee together. Deane admitted that his previous adventures in Russia had given him grey hairs. Apraxin talked of the grief he felt at the recent death of a beloved nephew. He wept as he talked.
On 5 June John Deane left for shore in a pinnace accompanied by Apraxin’s servant. The ever-petulant Russian weather flared up once again. The pinnace was forced to put Deane ashore at a nearby village. Deane spent the night in the village. In the morning he rode to meet Count Tolstoi on horseback.
Tolstoi’s reception was polite but not exactly warm. Deane presented Tolstoi with his commission. Tolstoi already had a copy of the letter Deane had written at Apraxin’s request, translated from English into Russian.
‘We are not in peace with England,’ Tolstoi said, ‘and I cannot tell what to think of admitting a consul.’
‘I had not heard of there being war with England,’ Deane replied.
Tolstoi and Deane drank brandy together, after which Deane left for St Petersburg.
One of Tolstoi’s servants had instructed Apraxin’s servant to take Deane to see Count Golovkin as soon as he entered St Petersburg. The Russian capital was ten miles from Tolstoi’s residence. John Deane arrived in St Petersburg at noon. Deane had arranged to stay with an old friend, a Welsh engineer and shipbuilder named Joseph Ney. Deane’s baggage had not yet arrived. Barely settled in St Petersburg, Deane went to see Golovkin.