A year later, on 19 October 1791, a convention was signed in Stockholm, whereby the countries pledged to assist each other in case of foreign attack. The treaty anticipated the First Coalition in its being directed against Revolutionary France. Catherine bound herself to pay her new ally annual subsidies amounting to 300,000 rubles. Gustav III had sent to his cousin, Catherine II of Russia, a letter in which he besought her to "forget the war as a passing cloud" and invoked their common blood as his claim to enjoy amitie with his cousin.[citation needed]