The French were eager to hasten Radama II's succession in the interest of capitalizing on the Lambert Charter, an 1855 agreement between French representative Joseph-François Lambert and Radama that could only come into effect upon the prince's succession. The charter guaranteed Lambert and his business associates first rights to the exploitation of many of the island's commodities and natural resources. According to a British account, Lambert conspired with Jean Laborde and local leaders to persuade Radama II to sign a document written in French—a language in which the prince was not fluent—which Lambert orally translated as containing only an account of the excessive pressures the Queen's policies were placing on her subjects. Radama, who was sympathetic toward the commoners and interested in easing their burden but suspicious about the letter's true purpose, reluctantly signed the document under intense pressure from the French. He was not told the letter included a request for French military intervention that could have potentially brought Madagascar under French rule. France did not however intend to take such an action without the accord of Britain, whose influence had been well-established on the island, and refused to intercede on behalf of the prince. In the meantime, Radama, who had been made to swear on the Bible not to speak of the letter to anyone, had grown concerned enough to contact a British diplomat, thereby revealing the true circumstances under which the letter had been signed. The British refused to cooperate in the French plot, and an attack was averted. According to Lambert, however, the prince had indeed been an enthusiastic partner in the bid to end Ranavalona's reign, and his own true feelings about the endeavor had been misrepresented by the British diplomats.