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“Since their correspondence was personal, Metternich did not use a diplomatic cipher but instead went to elaborate lengths to try to ensure that it was not intercepted. He arranged for [Countess] Lieven’s letters to him from London to be sent by British diplomatic bag to the secretary of the Austrian embassy in Paris, Baron Franz von Binder. Inside each sealed package from the Countess, Binder found another package, also addressed to him, which contained a further sealed envelope with no address but which he had instructions to send via the Austrian diplomatic bag to one of Metternich’s secretaries in Vienna. Inside this sealed envelope was yet another, also unaddressed, which the secretary handed personally to Metternich, who was entirely unaware that the letter it contained from Countess Lieven had been secretly intercepted, copied, and resealed during transit by the Paris cabinet noir.”

— Christopher Andrew, The Secret World