L’Espion d’Österland was restored in 2002 by the Cinémathèque Française. A duplicate on safety stock was struck in 1990 from a nitrate negative held in the Cinémathèque’s collections. This material had no intertitles, thus restoration entailed their reconstruction and then their insertion into the new elements. Intertitle reconstruction was based on the original Pathé screenplay held in the Performing Arts Department of the French National Library, and on a list of intertitles from the Swedish version, held at the Svenska Filminstitutet.

De Kaunowitz the spy, in military service at Österland in Vesterland, reaches his post with secret instructions. He must find the map of the Mofors fort, separated from Österland by a deep, torrential river that forms an impassable belt around it. The military man attempts to ingratiate himself with the chamberlain von Tell, whose property lies near the fort. He then hires several individuals to simulate an armed attack against the chamberlain, only to appear right at that moment, causing the fake bandits to flee. The chamberlain’s daughter, captivated by the count’s adventuresome feat, falls in love with the seductive officer, almost without noticing…

From Henri Bousquet, Catalogue Pathé des années 1896 à 1914