The True Story of the Chevalier d'Eon (2025)

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

The True Story of the Chevalier d'Eon (1895) is a book on Chevalière d'Éon by E. A. Vizetelly.

PREFACE.

PART from any interest which this account of the remarkable and puzzling career of the Chevalier d'Eon may have for the general reader and the historical student, it may claim to be the first in which an attempt has been made to deal with that eighteenth century enigma in an impartial spirit. Approaching my subject without bias, I have endeavoured to disentangle the truth from amidst a mass of confliding statements, careless whether the result of my researches should prove to the advantage or the disadvantage of my hero, who, in the words of one that knew him well, was, like most men, compounded of good and evil, " but with qualities and faults which he habi- tually carried to extremes." '

All previous writers upon the Chevalier

• Count Charlei Francois de Broglie to Louis XVI.

viii Preface.

d*Eon have been partisans — some eager to 2H exculpate other personages at his expense, i others again far too much inclined. to believe k his every word, and disposed to laud and justify 2; him in every circumstance. The Duke de si Broglie, who sketches the Chevalier's life in i his important historical work, " Le Secret du:. Roi," treats him with great severity— expati- i ating at length upon everything that is against i him, and barely mentioning anything that is in: his favour. A similar disposition was evinced by M. de Lom^nie in his exhaustive accoimt of j ^^ Beaumarchais et son Temps," though in blackening D'Eon he scarcely contrived to whiten the author of " Le Barbier de Seville." On the other hand, M. Gaillardet, in his well- known "Mimoires sur la Chevaliere d*Eon " (Paris, 1866) — a work still considered in France to be the chief authority on D'Eon, though it is full of glaring historical inaccuracies — displays an excessive partiality for his hero, which leads him to interpret every doubtful point to his advantage.

However, it is in an English biography, " The Strange Career of the Chevalier d'Eon de Beaumont," published some years ago, that D'Eon worship attains its apogee. The author of this volume, Captain J. Buchan Telfer, R.N.,

Preface. ix

will not allow the Chevalier to have a failing, and though he professes not to judge his hero, his book, from first to last, is but an elaborate piece of special pleading in D'Eon's favour. Captain Telfer, who in preparing his work had the advantage of consulting the D'Eon MSS. in the possession of Mr. J. H. B. Christie, certainly gathered together a large number of interesting fads and cited many curious documents relating to the Chevalier, but he not unfrequently jumbled these to- gether, seemingly with the objedt of supporting his own theories, instead of presenting them in their proper sequence. It may readily be granted that in studying D'Eon's life we often find ourselves in presence of confli^ng state- ments, which cannot be left to speak for them- selves, but require impartial interpretation. Captain Telfer, however, whilst duly recording any testimony that may exist against D'Eon, invariably seeks to explain it away. In his opinion, as in that of M. Gaillardet, everything the Chevalier may say about his career is certain to be correct, whilst everything of a contradidrory nature said by other people is certain to be wrong. Surely this is not the spirit in which the historical biographer should approach vexatious points. At times, moreover.

X Preface.

following M. Gaillardct's example. Captain Telfcr blunders strangely concerning well- known personages and events, and in spite of his lavish display of piices justificatroes omits all mention of certain important papers given in works from which, when it has suited his convenience, he has freely gleaned. To some of his errors of omission and commission I have called attention in my narrative.

In Captain Telfer's book and also in Gail- lardet's work a large number of memoirs, letters, and other documents bearing upon D'Eon's career are given in extenso. I have not thought it necessary to reprint these documents word for word for the second or third time, but I have made free use of them in telling my story, indicating the purport of all those which seem to me of value, and quoting important or charaderistic passages from them.

It will be found that, unlike Captain Telfer, I have related the story of D*Eon*s career in Russia in considerable detail. I have myself had access to the Archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs — ^which French writers alone, as a rule, are privileged to con- sult — ^and many of the particulars which I have derived from this and other sources are entirely new. However, M. Albert Vandal, in

Preface. xi

Ills engaging and valuable work, " Elisabeth de Russie et Louis XV.," had already, by refer- ence to the sesame archives, brought to light various curious particulars concerning D'Eon's Russian experiences, and I have borrowed some highly interesting passages from his book. AVith reference to Louis XV/s secret diplomacy generally I have availed myself of the informa- tion contained in M . Boutaric's copious volumes on the subject, and in the Duke de Broglie's

• ^ Secret du Roi; " at times verifying the

statements of these writers by reference to the original documents in the French Archives.

Those who are acquainted with the earlier scandalous accounts of D'Eon's career will be aivare that I might have studded my pages ivith anecdotes of more or less romantic and degrading amours; but to have done so would have been contrary to my purpose, for the aim of this book is to tell the truth about D'Eon, and the anecdotes in question are«one and all false. True, he dressed as a man during his earlier years, and as a woman during the latter part of his career; but his metamorphosis was in no wise occasioned by a scandalous motive. He had his faults, as will be seen; but it is certain that his life was exceptionally chaste. In conclusion, I think I may fairly claim to

xii Preface.

have elucidated several of the controversial points in D'Eon's life; notably the origin of his connedtion virith the Chevalier Douglas, his alleged appointment as " lady reader " to the Czarina Elizabeth, his presence at St, Peters- burg in female garments, his supposed intrigue virith the Princess DashkofF, his improbable flirtation with the Countess de Rochefort, his spurious midnight meetings virith Queen Char- lotte, his charges of attempted murder against the Count de Guerchy, and his real motives in asserting himself to be a v^oman. All these points, scabrous though some of them may seem, have, I think, been here dealt with in such a manner as to give no offence. More- over, by paying stridt attention to dates, I have frequently been able to redify more or less im- portant errors in the pages of D'Eon's earlier biographers.

Finally, on my own behalf and that of the publishers, \ desire to thank Mr. Joseph Grego for the valuable assistance he has rendered in suggesting and supplying most of the illustra- tions with which this volume is provided.

E. A. V.

Merton^ Surrey^ i895-

CONTENTS.

CHAfTtt PAOe

I. IntToctufiorv. The Prince de Conti and the

Secret Diplomacy of Louis XV i

II. 1728 — 1754. D'Eon's Family, Birth, ind early

Life 25

III. 1755 — 1756. Douglas's Million to Russia —

Tnc Lia de Beaumont Legend 43

IV. April, 1756 — ^Junt^ 1757. Experiences of

D'Eon and Douglas in Russia 67

V. July, 1757 — August, 1760. The Prince de Conti s Quarrel with Louis XV. — D'Eon, L'Hopital^ and Breteuil in Russia .... 85

VI. September, 1760 — March, 1763. D'Eon's mili- tary Experiences and Share in negotiating the Peace of Paris 112

VII. March — May, 1 763. D'Eon, the Countess de Rochefort, and Queen Charlotte — The pro-

je^d Invasion of England 130

VIII. May— November, 1763. D'Eon's Difficulties with his Superiors — His Quarrels with Guerchy and Vergy 1 49

IX. November, 1763 — ^July, 1764. The Attempts to extradite and kidnap D'Eon — His Publica- tions and Trial for Libel 169

X. July, 1764— -June, 1765, D'Eon's Charges

against Guerchy — Indidment of Guerchy . 187

xiv Contents.

CHAITBIl PAGE

XI. June, 1765 — May, 1774. D'Eon's Reports on English Afrairs: — His Sex uid the policy

GambUng 212

XII. May, 1774 — Oftobcr, 1775. D'Eon's Claims against the French Government — His Nego- tiations with Pninevaux, Pommereul, and Beaumarchais 241

XIII. Oflobcr, 1775 — August, 1777. The Covenant

between D'Eon and Beaumarchais — Their Quarrel — D'Eon's Return to France . . . 264

XIV. August, 1777 — November, 1785. D'Eon's

Experiences in France 288

XV. November, 1785 — May, 1810. D'Eon's last

years in England — Review of his Career. . 311

Appendix 335

Index 341

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PACE

I. The Chivalikr D*£on; prom the paint- ing BY Angelica Kauffmann, after a PASTEL ASCRIBED TO La Tour , . Frpntitp'uet II. The Birthplace or the Chevalier D'Eoh

AT TONNERRB 26

III. Sir Charles Hanbury Williams: from

the portrait by Reynolds 55

IV. The Czarina Elizabsth: from the por-

trait BY Louis TocquA 70

V. The Grand-Duchess Catherine in uni- form: FROM an engraving by J. B.

FOSSEYEUX 94

VI. The Duke de Nivernais: from a print

IN the British Museum 122

VII. The ChevaliIrb D'Eon: prom the minia- ture by R. Cosway, R.A 169

VIII. Caricature: TheTrialopthbChbvalier

D*£oN BY A Jury of Matrons .... 227 IX. The Chevalier D'Eon in his uniform:

FROM THE PORTRAIT BY HUGENER . . . 23O

X. Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumar-

CHAIS: FROM THE PORTRAIT AT VERSAILLES 25 I

XI. Facsimile of a Letter from D'Eon to

Miss Wilkes *77"9

XII. Caricature: Chevalier D'Eon returned,

OR THE Stockbrokers outwitted . . . 281

xvi List of Illustrations.

PAGE

XIII. The Assault between the CHSVALtlits

D'EON AND THE ChEVALIER DE SaINT-

Georges at CARtTOM House: from the

PAINTING BY ROBINBAU 315

XIV, Caricature: St. George and the Dragon

AND Mademoiselle D*£on "riposting" . 316 XV. FAaiMiLBs OF D'Eon's Handwriting . . 321 XVI. The CnEVALiftRE D'Eon as she appeared

WHEN FENCING: FROM THE PAINTING BY ROBINEAU 322

THE TRUE STORY

THE CHEVALIER D'EON.

I. Introductory.

Some Inddenta in the Life of Louis Fnnfois, Prince de Conti — Ambition of the Prince — The Secret Diplomacy of Louis XV. — Rupture between France and Russia — > The Marquis deUChetardie and hisReverscs of Fortune — French Agents and Emissaries at St. Petersburg — Mission entrusted to the Chevalier Douglas — His Ante- cedents — Charlca Genevieve D&m.

HN one of the galleries of the Palace of Versailles, which, after it had ceased to be a royal re- sidence, Louis Philippe dedi- cated to " all the glories of " France," there are four paintings by Michel Barth^lemy Olivier, illustrative of incidents in the life of Louis Francois de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, in the days of Louis XV. One of these paintings represents the

2 The Chevalier D'Eon.

Prince presiding at a picnic given to the famous Ferdinand of Brunswick; another shows him on the balcony of his chateau de I'lsle Adam, watching a stag which has taken to the water followed by a pack of hounds; and in a third he is seen with his familiars at a supper party in one of the salons of the old Parisian Commandery of the Knights Templars, known, like the London Commandery of the same order, by the briefer name of " the Temple," and famous in history as the prison, for a time, of Louis XVL and Marie Antoinette, After the order of the Templars had been suppressed in France, the Parisian Temple became the Commandery of the Knights of Malta, of whom, in the days of Louis the Well-Beloved, the Prince de Conti was Grand Prior.

When in Paris, it was at the Temple that the Prince resided, gathering around him there, like his predecessor, the famous Philippe de Venddme, a number of military, literary, and artistic notabilities whom he was wont to entertain with the lavish hospitality of a prince and a Bourbon. In the painting referred to he has many such notabilities with him. Seven- teen guests are shown, seated at a couple of tables spread with dainty edibles, choice flowers, and gold and silver plate; and to the accompa- niment of a harp and a spinet, a couple of vocalists are exerting their powers for the entertainment of the party; whilst the Prince de Conti, with a smile on his face, removes a

The Chevalier D^Eon. 3

\ bottle of champagne from an icepail of repoussd silver.

In the fourth of Olivicr's paintings at Versailles, another sabm of the Temple is de- pi£ted, with a gallant company of noble cavaliers and graceful dames, partaking of tea and cakes whilst listening to Jeliotte, a famous vocalist of the time, whom a little boy, apparently some ten years old, is accompanying on a harpsichord. This child is none other than Mozart, whose presence here invests the pidture with real interest and value. Olivier certainly never dreamt that his painting would become famous because he had introduced into it, as a mere " accessory," this little lad with the dreamy Vace. He was undoubtedly more concerned in portray- ing his patron, the Prince de Conti, and the dukes, counts, mar^chales, and marchionesses who sit or stand around, enjoying the cup '^ that cheers but not inebriates." Conti, Beauvau, Henin, and Luxemburg have all passed away, however, and are nowadays wellnigh for- gotten, but Mozart lives — ^as he will ever live — in his works, and in every civilized country his name has remained a household word.

Looking at Olivier's paintings one might be inclined to surmise that the Prince de Conti led the usual life of a grandee of epicurean tastes with all possible leisure at his command. It should be mentioned, however, that these four pidlures were painted in 1766, when the Prince had renounced, not all ambition certainly.

4 The Chevalier UEon.

but, at any rate, the fondest desire of his aspiring heart. That desire was to be a king. During the course of half a century or so he built him- self many castles in the air. He dreamt in turn of marrying an empress, of ruling Poland, of becoming Duke of Courland, and generalissimo of the Russian armies, of obtaining the princi- pality of Neufchitel, and of persuading the Pope to create him a cardinal. He was anxious also to cut a figure as a poet, but complained that he could not find rhymes for his verses. Indeed, in almost everything he attempted he was doomed to failure and disappointment.

Yet his life had opened under the most favdlirable auspices. His military talents were of a high order, and when at the age of twenty- seven he routed the King of Sardinia at the bloody battle of Coni in Piedmont, it was prophesied that he would furnish as glorious a career as that of his grand-uncle, the great Cond^. That prophecy was never fulfilled; the Prince might have continued serving in the French armies, but after resolutely refus- ing to a£t as aide-de-camp to Marshal Saxe, a post which he deemed altogether beneath his dignity, he retired in high dudgeon into private life. Married in 1732 to Mademoiselle de Chartres, daughter of the Regent d*Orl^ans, he had become a widower in 1736, and after- wards contracted a liaison with the celebrated Countess de BoufHers-Rouverel, whose first appearance at the Court of Versailles, according

11)6 Chevalier D'Eon. 5

to a madrigal of the time, provoked the suppo- sition that Cupid's mother had descended in person from Olympus/

A woman of fascinating beauty, endowed with a lively and original wit, Madame de Boufflers was separated from her husband, and resided at the H6tel de St. Simon in the Rue Notre Dame de Nazareth, whence she every day repaired to the Temple to preside at the receptions which the Prince de Conti held there. In Olivier's picture of the tea party she is shown serving the assembled guests. Prior to forming this connection, however, the Prince had wished to marry again, and in 1741 had conceived the idea of espousing the Grand- Duchess Elizabeth Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great, by whom, some years previously, her hand hadl been offered first to the Regent d' Orleans for his eldest son, and subsequently to the Duke de Bourbon. Whatever her moral defedts may have been — ^and they were, as is well known, numerous — Elizabeth was certainly a woman of striking beauty, with large liquid blue eyes, a mass of light brown hair, and a

^ We catch a glimpse of Madame de Boufflers in Fanny Burney's diary. At the time when she visited England in 1763, she was especially angry with Queen Charlotte for never granting Fanny any holidays. Walpole also alludes to the Countess, whom he entertained at Strawberry Hill; and about the same time Topham Beauclerk presented her to Dr. Johnson. During the Revolution Madame de Boufflen was thrown into prison, and would have been guillotined but for the downfall of Robespierre.

6 The Chevalier D'Eon.

graceful and well-developed figure. Conti, in his anxiety to marry her, despatched a private emissary — the Sieur d'Avesnes — to Russia, and also sought to obtain the assistance of Cardinal de Fleury, then all-powerful at Versailles. Although his endeavours came to nothing — the Grand - Duchess intimating that " she desired to retain her independence," ^ the Prince did not lose heart, and in 1745 — ^four years after she had forcibly made her way to the throne — he is found writing to M. d*Usson d'Allion, the French Minister at St. Petersburg, asking him for various particulars concerning the Empress. D^AUion in reply gave the Prince detailed information respecting Elizabeth^s numerous amours,^ and Conti then reludtantly realized that he must renounce his hopes.

During the War of the Austrian Succession, a short time previous to the Peace of Aix-la- Chapelle, his ambition took another turn. Several Polish noblemen came to Paris on a private mission. They were opposed to Frederic Augustus II. — the son of Augustus the Strong of Saxony — ^who governed their country under the joint influence of Austria and Russia, and were desirous of restoring the old French party in Poland, the same which, sixty years previously, had offered the Polish crown to the Prince dc Conti's grandfather. Frederic Augustus more-

^ Archives des Affaires Etrangeres. Correspondance de Russie, 1741.

• Ibid^ D'Allion, Jan. 4, 1 746.

The Chevalier D'Eon. j

over was in bad health — he was of an apopledlic nature — and these disa£Fe£ted nobles, taking time by the forelock, wished to make every prepara- tion in view of providing him with a French successor. Repairing to the Temple they inter- viewed Louis de Conti, and offered to support him if he would come forward as their candidate. The Prince eagerly entered into their views, and broached the subjeft to his royal relative, Louis XV., with whom at the time he was on very cordial terms. There were, however, numerous difficulties in the way. On the one hand, no doubt, Louis XV. was mortified at the decline of French influence at Warsaw; but, on the other, he was unwilling to intrigue openly for the removal of the House of Saxony from the Polish throne; for his son the Dauphin had but recently espoused a Saxon princess, and, moreover. Marshal Saxe was in command of the French armies. All he could contrive, therefore, was to assist Conti secretly, and this he promised to do, agreeing to finance the intrigue out of his privy purse, and to secure the private co-operation of M. Cast^ra, then French resident at Warsaw. Cast^ra received secret instruftions signed by the King, autho- rizing him to correspond with the Prince de Conti, and to establish relations with those Polish nobles who might desire to ele£t a French prince in succession to Frederic Augustus.*

• The Duke de BrogUe's " Le Secret du Roi," Paris,

1 879, vol. u p. 1 7.

8 The Chevalier URon.

Such was the origin of Louis XV.*s secret diplomacy, which in course of time necessitated the employment of emissaries in every country of Europe, and the motive and scope of whicn — subject to incessant change — so completely puzzled historians, until the archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs had yielded up their documentary treasures. At the period referred to, Poland was a subjeft of interest to all Europe, and in order that his pretensions might obtain support in foreign courts Conti secured, notably, the nomination of the Marquis d*Havrincourt, the Count des Alleurs, and the Chevalier de la Touche as French ambassadors at Stockholm, Constantinople, and Berlin re- spedtively; it being arranged that whilst these diplomatists corresponded officially with Ver- sailles, they should also forward private de- spatches to the Temple.

Conti had always enjoyed free access to the King, and each time a despatch came to hand he carried it to Versailles. At first the corre- spondence treated only of Polish affairs, but the different envoys were soon instructed to give a private account of what occurred in the countries where they resided; and the infor- mation which they thus imparted — at times political news of high importance, at others mere Court scandal and boudoir tittle-tattle — was all placed before Louis XV., who was delighted to find that nothing took place in Europe without his knowledge, and that, un-

The Chevalier D^Eon. 9

beknown to his ministers and his mistresses, he was able to control their policy.

It must not be supposed, however, that Conti's frequent interviews with the King escaped the notice of jealous rivals and prying courtiers. " The Prince de Conti,** wrote the Duke de Luynes in his journal, under date February 14, 1748, "was at work with the King last Sunday. Everyone is asking what work they can have in common. Some people pretend that the Prince has obtained informa- tion on various subje£ls, which he comes here to lay before the King." The ministers were naturally very puzzled and passably indignant at these goings-on, and the Marquis d'Argen- son. Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, is found writing: " Everyone is greatly astonished at the Prince de Conti mixing himself up in affairs of state. The Prince often repairs to the King^s apartments, carrying bulky port- folios with him, and works with the King for a long time." As for Madame de Pompa- dour, then all-powerful and in the habit of meddling in everything, she could not disguise her amazement. She questioned both the King and Conti, and was extremely mortified when they refused to admit her into their secret. Eventually this secret was in some measure surprised by the Marquis d'Argenson, through the infidelity of a Polish emissary named Blandowski, who brought him some of Conti's despatches; but the Marquis's brother.

lo The Chevalier lyEon.

the celebrated Lieutenant-general of Police, counselled him not to meddle in the matter if he wished to keep clear of the Bastille, and D'Argenson followed this advice.

Conti's intrigues for the Polish crown, assisted by the secret diplomatic service, had gone on for some years, with various fluftuations of hope and despondency on the Prince's part, when in 1754 war broke out between France and Great Britain. Early in the following year Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, one of the Walpolean circle of wits, who had long served as British minister at Dresden, was despatched to St. Petersburg to negotiate for the assistance of a Russian army which should undertake the defence of Hanover. To frus- trate this negotiation France resorted to a variety of ta<5tics. She endeavoured to provoke a diversion on the part of Turkey; * despatched Baron von Tott to the Khan of the Crimea to induce him to let loose his Tartar hordes; and, by means of other emissaries, sought to stir the 2^porozhtsui Cossacks into revolt.* At the same time the King and Conti considered it expedient to send a secret envoy to St. Peters- burg, where there had been no French ambas- sador, minister, or even consul, resident for nearly ten years.

^ Archives des Aflaires Etrangeres. Instru^ons for M. dc Vcrgcnnes, May, 1755.

» Vandal's «Louis XV. et Elizabeth de Russic." Paris, 1882, p. 248.

7X^ Chevalier D'Eon. 1 1

It has already been mentioned that, when the Czarina Elizabeth was in her youth, her hand had been offered by her father, first to the Regent d'Orl^ans, for his son, the Duke de Chartres, and subsequently to the Duke de Bourbon. Moreover, her mother, Catherine I., had at one moment endeavoured to wed her to Louis XV. himself.i On her side Elizabeth entertained great personal regard for the Well- Beloved. A depraved woman herself, a fellow- feeling, possibly, drew her towards the profligate ruler of France. In politics, however, she was completely swayed by her chancellor, BestuchefF, whose sympathies were wholly English and German, and since 1746 diplomatic relations had entirely ceased between Versailles and St. Petersburg.

Not only are the circumstances which led to the rupture extremely curious and little known, but they have so much bearing on what will be related hereafter, that it is necessary to give some account of them.

On the evening of June 12th, 1744, as the brilliant and unscrupulous Marquis de la Ch^tardie, at that time French envoy to the Russian Court, was about to retire for the night, after supping gaily with Graf von Mardefeld, the Prussian ambassador, he re- ceived a visit which caused him no little surprise. Three Russian officers of high rank

^ Vandal, pp. 82 it seq.

12 The Chevalier D'Eon.

presented themselves at his residence at Moscow, where the Court was sojourning at the time, and demanded to speak with him in the name of the Czarina. They were admitted to his presence, and one of them, after remarking that he had a painful mission to fulfil, pro- ceeded to read aloud a document, couched in bad French, which enjoined " Monsieur le Marquis de la Ch^tardie, brigadier in the French armies, to quit Moscow within four- and-twenty hours, without seeing anyone, and to be gone with all possible despatcn beyond the frontiers of the Russian empire/* The motives assigned for this order of expulsion were that the Marquis, instead of being grateful to the Empress for her many afts of kindness towards him, had endeavoured to corrupt numerous of the Czarina's subjefts, including even members of the clergy, and had not only tried to create a party of his own at Court, and sought to overthrow her Majesty's ministry, but had presumed with audacious temerity to describe and calumniate her Majesty's sacred person in his despatches/ At first La Ch^tardie put a bold face on the matter, protesting that he had never slandered the Czarina, but his visitors began to read to him various extracts from his own despatches, describing Elizabeth as a frivolous creature of most dissolute morals, depi6ling the Russian

^ Archives des Afiaires Etrangeres, 1744.

The Chevalier D'Eon. 13

Court as a hotbed of depravity, enumerating all the high personages whose influence could be purchased with French gold, and explaining in minute detail the complicated intrigue he had engaged in, with the view of overthrowing Chancellor BestuchefF, and of drawing Russia into an alliance with France, Prussia, and Sweden, against the House of Austria. On hearing his own words read out to him. La Ch^tardie realized that protests were out of place. "That will do, gentlemen," said he; and dismissing his visitors, he forthwith began his preparations for departure.

He could not offer any resistance to the Czarina's order, for he was unable to claim any definite status^ though he had letters of credit and to spare among his papers. The Court of Versailles had repeatedly instrufted him to present these letters, but he had re- frained from doing so, opining, no doubt, that he was the more likely to bring his underhand intriguing to a successful issue if he pursued it in an unofficial capacity. Now, however, his disobedience to orders had placed him in a position in which he might deem himself fortunate at escaping so lightly, for he had rendered himself liable to c^tention in a for- tress, or possibly exile to Siberia.

On the morrow, the scheming Marquis quitted Moscow, where he had been treated with such manifest favour by Elizabeth, and whence he was now expelled in such an ignominious

14 T'he Chevalier D'Eon.

fashion. Five years previously he had journeyed to Russia in great state, with twelve secretaries, eight chaplains, six cooks, and fifty pages and valets in his train; and when he had passed through Dresden on his route, ManteufFel, the Prussian envoy in Saxony, had been so struck by his magnincence that in hot haste he had penned a despatch to Frederick the Great, in which he particularly vaunted the Marquis's wonderful clothes, declaring that they would '^ prove the most magnificent and tasteful that the Russians had ever seen." At Riga, the first Russian town which the Marquis had reached, the governor, a Bismarck holding the rank of a general in the Muscovite army, had received him with most extravagant honours, surpassing even those accorded to sovereign princes; and, once at St. Petersburg, La Ch^- tardie had certainly accomplished wonders, instigating, planning, and subsidizing the revo- lution by which little Ivan of Brunswick, the baby Czar, was deposed, and Elizabeth placed on her father's throne. But, afterwards, the Marquis had blundered grievously, making enemies of Chancellor Bestuchefr and his brother, and as a result of this enmity he had been compelled to return to France towards the end of 1742.

In November, 1743, however,— contrary to the advice of M. d'AUion, who had replaced him as French envoy at St. Petersburg, — ^he was again despatched to Russia with the view

The Chevalier UEon. 15

of drawing the Czarina into the alliance against Austria, which has been referred to. To accom- plish this object, it was necessary that the Marquis should overthrow Chancellor Bestu- cheflF, the friend alike of Austria and England, but BestuchefF was on the alert, and having intercepted and deciphered seven of La Che- tardie's secret despatches, he placed them before the Empress, with the result that the Marquis was summarily expelled from the empire. Very different to his triumphal progress in 1739 was the journey which he now accom- plished. There were now no pompous entries into each town that he reached along his line of route, no bareheaded municipal officers waiting with addresses and the customary bread and salt at the gates, no city butlers inviting him to moisten his lips in the loving cup, no reviews, balls, and banquets given in his honour. He journeyed as a prisoner; dragoons with drawn sabres galloped beside his carriage; at one stage he was overtaken by an officer who demanded the return of the Empress's portrait and the star of St. Andrew studded with diamonds, which had been pre- sented to him as a special mark of the imperial favour; whilst the commander of his escort fixed what route he should follow, prevented him from having any intercourse with the inhabitants, and only ceased his surveillance when the frontier was at last reached.

The Marquis's royal master, Louis XV.,

1 6 The Chevalier D^Eon.

prudently refrained from asking the Russian Court for any explanation with regard to his envoy's expulsion. The Well-Beloved had privately connived at and approved of the intrigues started by La Ch^tardie. Had the latter succeeded in his endeavours he might or might not have obtained some reward from the King; but, having failed, he was naturally deemed deserving of punishment. So, upon his return to France he was forbidden to appear at Court; and, whilst he was sorrow- fully wending his way to his renaissance chateau near Chabanais, where, at the time of the Grand Monarque^ his mother had often entertained Madame de S^vign6,^ M. d*Allion, who had previously replaced him as French envoy in Russia, once more set out for St. Petersburg. The Marquis, however, had dealt what seemed to be a death-blow to French influence in Russia, and M. d'AUion, though received very graciously by Elizabeth, was unable to repair

^ M. Gaillardet, in his ^'Memoires sur la Chevaliere d'Eon " (Paris, 1866), asserts that La Chetardie was imprisoned in the citadel of Montpellier on his return to France, but this statement is inaccurate. One of his secretaries was suspeded of having betrayed him, and sent to the Basrille, but was shortly afterwards released. The Marquis's own disgrace was likewise of brief duration. Eight months after his expulsion from Russia we find him serving in the French army in Piedmont, and a little later he was appointed amrassador at Turin, where he again got into trouble, this time owing to his amorous disposition. His whole career was most romantic, and well worthy of being related in detail.

The Chevalier D^Eon. 17

the effeds of La Ch^tardie's intrigues. In May, I745> the Czarina, yielding to the solicitations of BestuchefF, signed a treaty of alliance with Maria Theresa against France, and on this treaty being ratified during the ensuing year, and coming to the knowledge of the Court of Versailles, M. d'Allion was abruptly recalled from his post.

At this juncture Turkey offered to keep the Muscovites in check, but the Mar^chal de Noailles represented to Louis XV. that an alliance between the eldest son of the Church and the traditional enemy of Christianity would excite universal indignation throughout Europe, and most certainly deter Providence from according its blessing to the French arms. Now, if Louis XV, was dissolute he was also devout, and the Marshal's intimation had such an efFedt upon him that he declined the Sultan's offers. Later on, when 30,000 Russian troops were massed on the shores of the Baltic, awaiting English vessels to carry them to Flanders, when another Russian corps was marching across Europe, and had almost reached the frontiers of Alsace, the Court of Versailles would have been only too glad to obtain help from the Sultan, with whom indeed the famous adventurer Bonneval was endeavouring to negotiate an alliance at the time of his death. Fortunately for France, at the moment when the Russians were about to enter Alsace, the European plenipotentiaries^

c

1 8 The Chevalier D'Eon.

who for some time had been assembled in congress, came to an understanding as to terms of peace, and on April 30, 1748, the preliminary treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle put an end to the war or the Austrian Succession.

During the next seven or eight years, al- though France and Russia did not at any time aSually meet on the battlefield, they treated one another as enemies in every diplo- matic contest that arose in Europe. The rupture was complete. The French Court knew but little of what went on at St. Peters- burg, though there were a few French subjeds there, tutors and secretaries to Russian person- ages, and also a small number of merchants who continued to ply their trades unproteded by any ambassador. Among the Czarina's attendants, moreover, there was a certain Madame Caravaque, of French origin, who, at the time when Conti despatched the Sieur d'Avesnes to Russia in view of asking Eliza- beth in marriage, had undertaken to inform her mistress of the Prince's suit. It was through her that Elizabeth had returned the answer that she wished to retain her in- dependence. This Madame Caravaque, as will presently be shown, was acquainted with a certain Michel, a French banker and merchant established at St. Petersburg, who had im- portant interests also at Rouen, and was con- stantly journeying between France and Russia. During one of his journeys in 1753, Michel

The Chevalier UEon. 19

proceeded to Versailles, obtained an audience of the Foreign Secretary and informed him that he had a secret message to deliver: Eliza- beth was of opinion that bygones should be bygones and was desirous or renewing diplo- matic intercourse.^ This message had probably been conveyed to Michel by Madame Cara- vaque. Louis XV., however, did not think fit to respond to the Czarina's advances, for at that time he was both officially and secretly combating Russian influence in Poland. So Michel was simply thanked for his communica- tion and went his way.

A year later, the St. Petersburg police sig- nalled the arrival in that city of a Frenchman calling himself the Chevalier de Valcroissant. BestucheflF scented that this stranger must be a spy, and immediately ordered his arrest, with the result that Valcroissant, who could not or would not produce any documents explaining the objeft of his journey, was consigned to the fortress of Schlusselburg on Lake Ladoga. It is virtually certain that he had been entrusted with some mission either by the French govern- ment or by Conti, but what that mission was^ and whether Louis XV. had already repented of not entertaining the overtures made through Michel, cannot now be ascertained, there being no documents on the subjed in any of the French archives.* It is possible, nowever,

^ Archives des Afiaires Etrangeres. Retrospe£tive letter of Cardinal de Bemis, 1757. ' Vandal, p. 259.

20 The Chevalier D^Ron.

that papers bearing on the matter nniay exist in Russia.

Elizabeth would appear to have renewed her overtures to France even at the moment when by her chancellor's advice she was about to sign the treaty of subsidies with Great Britain, which Sir Charles Hanbury Williams had been charged to negotiate. This treaty might entail disastrous consequences for France, and Louis XV. could no longer afford to remain indifferent; still, he was not at all anxious to contract a formal alliance with Russia^ such as would have necessitated a thorough change in French policy with reference to Poland and the East. He imagined, however, that by flattering the Czarina and appealing to her old sentiments of regard for himself, he might detach her, unconditionally, from the English alliance.^ If not, the Turks, the Crimean Tartars, and the Cossacks of the Don were, as previously stated, to efFedt a diversion.

To the Prince de Conti fell the task of seleding emissaries who might succeed in eluding the vigilance of Chancellor BestuchefF and in penetrating to Elizabeth in person. The Prince had long been accustomed to choose both the official and secret envoys of France from among his friends and hangers-on.

• Affiiires Etrangeres. Secret instnidions to Baron de

Breteuil, April i, 1760. In this document, which is given at length by Vandal, Louis XV. recapitulates his previous policy towards Russia.

TTie Chevalier D'Eon. 21

The higher posts were reserved to the noble- men who supped and hunted with him, the lower ones to the persons whom he treated less familiarly, the parasites, flatterers, and frotigis^ who from time to time were privileged to enjoy his hospitality at the Temple, and possibly to attend the concerts which, accord- ing to Bachaumont, he was accustomed to give every Monday afternoon — concerts which formed an attradive feature of the Parisian " high life '* of the period. It was among his acquaintances of the latter class that the Prince now sought some dexterous and courageous individuals to whom he might confide the Russian mission. The treatment inflicted on the Chevalier de Valcroissant showed that such a mission was not without its dangers. Indeed, it seemed likely that any stranger of French nationality who might enter the Czarina's dominions would be pounced upon by the agents of the wary BestucheflF and consigned to durance. It was preferable, therefore, to employ a foreigner for the task.

Now Conti was necessarily well acquainted with such an important civic fundionary as the Intendant de la G^n^ralit^ de Paris, who about this time happened to be a certain M. Berthier de Sauvigny. This official em- ployed as tutor to his sons a Scotsman named Mackenzie, who called himself the Chevalier Douglas,^ and gave out that he had followed

^ In sele^ng this pseudonym, Mackenzie very likely

22 The Chevalier D^Eon.

the fortunes of the Pretender, and had been obliged to fly his native heath and seek refuge in France, bringing with him nothing but his plaid and his claymore {la cape et Fipie). In reality, however, Douglas — as he will be called in this narrative for convenience' sake — ^was simply an ex-Jesuit. He had lived at Li^ge during the late war, a£ting as a spy in the pay of Holland, and afterwards entering the service of the Prince of Waldeck.* Subsequently he had turned up in Paris, where he had become tutor in M. Berthier de Sauvigny's family. In those days the French were greatly interested in the Scottish exiles, and moreover, as Douglas assumed a high-sounding name, claimed to be of noble birth, and was certainly a man of con- siderable parts, with no little talent for intrigue, it is not surprising that he should have wormed his way into good society. It may be noted also that, although he was no longer a Jesuit, he kept up some sort of connedtion with the Order he had belonged to, and had become acquainted

remembered that it had been borne on various occasions bjr the Young Pretender, notably during his stay at Gravelines in 1744, when Marshal Saxe vainly essayed a descent on the English coast.

^ ^^ Russia Correspondence, Public Record office, quoted

a* Captain Telfer, R.N., in his ^Strange Career of the levalier d'Eon de Beaumont** London, 1885, p. 6. This Prince of Waldeck was the Dutch general who so persistently thwarted the Duke of Cumberland in his attempts to relieve Tournai, and, according to the ^ Culloden Papers," gave un- mistakable proofs of cowardice at Fontenoy.

The Chevalier D'Eon. 23

in Paris with one of its most eminent members. Father de La Tour, who, like M. Berthier de Sauvigny, was extremely well known to the Prince de Conti. It is not surprising, there- fore, that the loyal Scotch chevalier, constrained by misfortune to become a tutor, should have obtained admission to the salons of the Temple.

Conti cast his eyes upon Douglas, extracted from him, possibly, divers particulars as to his previous life, and, finding that he was the person he required, decided to send him to Russia.

Among the visitors to the Temple at that time there was also a young man of seven and twenty, of somewhat diminutive though grace- ful build, with a pert, effeminate, almost girlish face, but having an iron wrist and excelling in the art of fencing. He also cultivated letters, was already known as an author, and was fre- quently called upon to license the works of others, inasmuch as he was one of the royal literary censors. This position, apart from the influence of relatives and friends, was alone calculated to ensure him admission into the Prince de Conti's salons. He was already well acquainted too, not only with the Jesuit, Father de La Tour,^ but also with the Chevalier Douglas, for he had been employed as secretary

^ La Tour, writing to the Marquis de I'Hdpital under date August 17, 1757, says: ^I have known him (Deon) for a lone time \ I have great esteem for him, and am sure that you will have every reason to be satisfied with his wit, intelligence, charader, and virtue."

24 The Chevalier D^Eon.

by the same M. Berthier de Sauvigny whose sons Douglas was educating; and it was on this account probably that he was eventually seleded to assist the Scotch Chevalier in the task of reconciling France and Russia. This young man — ^known at the period we are referring to by the name of Deon de Beaumont — subse- quently became one of the chief agents of Louis XV.'s secret diplomatic service, and in the course of a strangely chequered career accomplished several remarkable exploits and met with many singular adventures. Some account of his parentage, childhood, and youth must be given, however, before starting him upon his travels.

II 1728— 1754.

The Home of the Deons at Tonnerre — The Origin of the Family — The new Messiah — Some cclcbratcaDeoni — Parentage, Birth, and Baptism of Charles Genevieve — Boy or Girl? — Young Deon's Schooldays at Tonnerre and in Paris — His Svourite Pastime — His three in- fluential Uncles — He loses both his Father and his Fortune — His first literary Efforts and his aristocratic Protestors — He is appointed a Censor Royal.

j HUNDRED and twenty miles ] south-west of Paris, on the con- fines of Lower Burgundy^ the little town of Tonnerre climbs one of the slopes overlooking the ' Armanfon, a tributary of the Yonne. The hillsides all around are planted with vines yielding a limpid exhilarating wine, which, although it cannot challenge comparison with the famous growths of " the golden slope," is nevertheless possessed of considerable character. Only a few miles away, in the valley of the Serein, lies Chablis, whose petit via ilanc is re- nowned all over the world.

If, on alighting at the station of Tonnerre, the

26 The Chevalier D^Eon.

tourist follows for a short distance the paved road known as the Rue du Pont, running parallel with the railway line to Lyons, he will perceive on his left hand an attraftive private residence, dating, as is indicated by its high slate roof, with tiny attic windows, from about the middle of the seventeenth century.

THE HRTHPLACE OF THE CHEVALtBK D EON AT TONNBRRE.

Too small to be styled a chateau, and yet too pretentious to be simply called a house — at least in France — this building is a fair example of what in the last century our neighbours were still apt to term a gentilhommihe, that is, the abode of some family of the petite noblesse. Fifty years ago the construftion of the railway line — which passes through a cutting some twenty or thirty yards in front of the house — swept away a portion of the spacious fore-court, together with sundry outbuildings and servants*

The Chevalier D^Eon. 27

quarters, originally forming part of the property; otherwise the latter remains much the same as it was in the days of Louis XV. A leafy garden extends to the bank of the Arman9on in the rear of the house, which, replete with old furniture, family portraits and relics, belongs to-day to the representative of the D^ons de Beaumont who once resided here.^

The Deons were said to be of Breton origin, and to have come originally from the vicinity of St. Malo. In the middle of the twelfth century a certain D^on or Eon de TEstoile, afflidted with a mystical derangement of mind, iniagined that he was the Son of God, and, various chance occurrences with which he was connected having been interpreted as miracles, he gathered around him a vast concourse of super- stitious Bretons, many of whom he dubbed angels and apostles, giving them such names as Judgment, Wisdom, Science, and Domination. Followed by his adherents, who comprised

^ M. Henri Rendu is the present owner. The connexion between the Rendus and the Deons is traced through the Lwit family, from whom the Chevalier d'Eon descended on the female side. A lady of that family was grandmother of M. Henri Rendu, who, we may add, was Diredor-general of customs in Mexico under Maximilian, and is related to the distinguished savant and politician of the same name, for many years Minister of Public Instruction and Grand Master of the University of France. The old Deon residence at Tonnerre has been admirably preserved by M. Rendu, who has gathered around him here many interesting relics and souvenirs of the Chevalier, to some of which we shall have occasion to refer.

28 nl)e Chevalier D^Eon.

many of his own relatives, the new Messiah marched through various provinces of France, announcing to all men that he had come to judge the quick and the dead, and so fascinating the ignorant, brutish peasantry with his senseless ravings that he recruited many partisans on his way.

Whilst traversing Champagne in the early part of 1 148 the new Messiah was pounced upon and thrust into prison by the men-at-arms of the Archbishop-duke of Reims, and as it chanced that Pope Eugenius III. had summoned an cecumenical council, over which he was to preside in person, to meet at Reims that same year. Eon de I'Estoile was arraigned before it. He was charitably judged to be insane rather than of perverse mind, so that he escaped the fate of heretics, and was condemned to imprison- ment for life. Some of his less fortunate ad- herents, however, were forthwith burnt at the stake. He himself died in prison after a brief captivity, his demise being hastened, it is asserted, by the bad treatment he received.

From Champagne some of his relatives are said to have fled to Burgundy — ^which at that time did not form part of France — establishing themselves near Lindry and Ligny in the forest lands around Tonnerre; and hereabouts in the last century there were hamlets yet known fas "Les Bretons" and "La Chaire du Diable" (the Devil's Pulpit), names recalling the immi- gration of Eon's Celtic followers and the hellish

77)6 Chevalier D'Eon. 29

pradtices in which they were supposed to have indulged.

Owing to a great fire, which consumed nearly the whole of Tonnerre in 1556, and destroyed the town archives, the D6ons of the eighteenth century were not able to trace their descent in diredt filiation from Eon de I'Estoile, but the h,6h set forth above were admitted as proved by two judgments rendered in 1779 and 1780 by the Court of the Chsltelet in Paris. Though the family must have reached Burgundy virtually penniless, it soon contrived to make its way in the world. Among the fighting D^ons was a certain Guillaume, who followed Margaret of France to England when she came to marry our Edward I., and who won his spurs as a knight banneret on this side of the channel, probably in the Welsh wars, and was afterwards despatched in 1302 as English envoy to Pope Boniface VIII. At subsequent periods we find a D^on fighting under Philip , of Valois in Flanders, another serving with the Grandes Compagnies, and a third who fell into the hands of the English whilst in command of some troops for Charles V.

There was also a D^on who adied as secretary to Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, another who, having some of the religious enthusiasm of Eon de TEstoile, journeyed barefooted on many pilgrimages, and ultimately founded an order of hermits on the mount of Ravi^res, overlooking the Arman9on, at no great distance

30 The Chevalier D^Eon.

from Tonnerre. Other D^ons or Eons were advocates and counsellors in Parliament; one held the office of provost to the Marshals of France; several contrafted advantageous marriages, becoming allied with such aristocratic houses as the Chaulnes, the Montbeliards, and the Regniers de Guerchy. In one way or another, indeed, the family was well able to claim that it belonged both to the nobility of the gown and to that of the sword.

Early in the seventeenth century its principal representative appears to have been a certain Louis D6on de Ramelu, an esquire and captain of infantry, serving in the armies of the great Conde as aide-de-camp to Fran9ois de Lorraine. He seems to have been but poorly circum- stanced, for Colbert, in recommending him to Mazarin, particularly urged that he had six children to provide for. Selfish and avaricious though Mazarin was, he may have done some- thing for him, as his son Andr^ D^on subse- quently figures as an advocate in Parliament, Mayor of Tonnerre, and sub-delegate of the Generality de Paris for Tonnerre, Ricey, Jussey, Appoigny, and Auxerre — a post which must have yielded a fair income, since it embraced the levying of taxes and imposts for the royal treasury. This Andre Deon had twelve children, one of whom, called Louis D^on de Beaumont — because he held the fief of Beaumont between Joigny and Auxerre — ^became an advocate at the bar of the Paris Parliament, a King's

The Chevalier D^Eon. 31

counsellor and steward of the royal demesnes in the county of Tonnerre, besides succeeding his father as mayor and as sub-delegate of the Generality de Paris.* This Louis D^on appears to have been a very worthy man, extremely charitable, and greatly loved by the poor. By his wife, Fran9oise de Charenton, he had three children — ^first, a girl christened Marguerite Fran9oise Vidoire, who was born in Oftober, 1724; and next, a son called Theodore Andr6 Thimothee, who was born in February, 1727, and died six months afterwards. Finally, on October 5, 1728, Dame Fran9oise gave birth to her third child, the subjeft of the present memoir.

This occurred at Tonnerre, in the house which has already in some measure been described; and French ladies, then as now, not being in the habit of suckling their own offspring, the infant was at once committed to the charge of a wet nurse familiarly known as the M^re Benoit. Two days later this worthy woman carried the child along the old Rue de THdpital — past the chapel where that high and powerful seigneur, Michel LeTellier, Marquis deLouvois and Count de Tonnerre, slept the eternal sleep in a marble mausoleum guarded by statues of History, Vigilance, and Wisdom — ^and ascended

^ Most of the above historical and genealogical details have been taken from De la Chesnaye des fiois* ^ DifHonnaire de la Noblesse,'^ which contains an exhaustive article on the Deon family.

32 The Chevalier D^Eon.

the dizzy flight of two hundred steps leading to the church of Notre Dame, where the Abb6 Bordes, Dean of Tonnerre, was waiting to administer the sacrament of baptism. A cousin of the D6ons, Monsieur Charles Regnard, an advocate in Parliament and bailli or judge of the marquisate of Cruzy near Tonnerre, and Dame Genevieve D6on, wife of a Monsieur Mouton, who lived in Paris, where he traded in the wines of Burgundy, adled as sponsors to the infant, who received the names of Charles - Genevieve - Louis - Auguste - Andri- Timoth^e,^ and was described in the baptismal register as the son of noble Louis D^on de Beaumont and of Dame Fran9oise his wife.

Nevertheless, we are asked to believe — on the faith of sundry statements penned many years subsequently by Charles Genevieve* — that when her child was four years old. Dame Franfoise, not content with causing the little one to be publicly consecrated to the Virgin in front of the high altar, at a solemn service held for the occasion, also had it dressed ^'in the robe of the sisterhood of the Virgin *' until it reached its seventh year; so that in the mean- time it passed as being a girl. In Catholic countries, boys as well as girls are often con-

^ In English these names would be Charles Genevieve Lewis Augustus Andrew Timothy. The only feminine name (Genevieve) was also that of the godmother; for which reason, undoubtedly, it was given to the child.

• Mr. Christy's "D'Eon MSS.,'^quoted by Telfer.

The Chevalier D^Eon. 33

secrated to the Virgin Mary, but though it is usual for them to wear white garments with blue favours, their attire is never the same as that prescribed for the sisterhood of the Virgin. Moreover, it seems incredible that Charles Genevieve should have been formally recog- nized as a Filk de la Vierge^ when he had been christened as a boy by the Dean of Tonnerre himself.

Tonnerre, which even nowadays numbers less than 6,000 souls, was then but a very small place, where everybody, and especially the clergy, knew everything about everybody else. It is difficult, therefore, to believe in these successive metamorphoses of young Charles Genevieve, the more so, indeed, as the story rests solely upon his own unsupported testimony; and it may be pointed out at once that his assertions often require to be taken with many grains of salt.

To put the case briefly, it is probable that Charles Genevieve's parents kept him in frocks somewhat longer than is usual, and did not promote him to his first pair of breeches until he was seven years of age. His education was then entrusted to the Abb6 Marcenay, cur6 of the Church of St. Peter at Tonnerre, who, when questioned some years subsequently as to his whilom pupil, knew nothing, apparently, of young D^on having ever belonged to the sisterhood of the Virgin, and could only re- member him as a somewhat mischievous urchin

34 T^he Chevalier D^Eon.

whom he had occasionally been obliged to whip for misbehaviour/

We may picture Charles Genevieve in his boyhood as slender and delicate, and with a pert, girlish face, as he ascends the tortuous streets of Tonnerre on his way to the parsonage of St. Peter*s. A manservant in livery, carrying a long cane, probably accompanies his young master, in accordance with the usage of the time, and wards off all urchins of low degree who may presumptuously seek to accost the aristocratic scion of the Deons. At the parsonage the Abb6 Marcenay is waiting, likewise provided with a cane, which will cause Charles Gene- vieve's noble flesh to tingle should he have failed to learn his lessons. During playtime, possibly, young D6on is permitted to walk upon the terrace around St. Peter's, which towers aloft upon a rocky crag, and thence he may scan the town of Tonnerre and the course of the Arman9on, winding like a silvery ribbon " between the banks that bear the vine.' Often- times, no doubt, his childish fancy is exercised in thinking of what there may be beyond those hills, and though at this early stage he can hardly have proposed to lead the romantic life which eventually became his lot, yet the vista of distant heights and old Burgundian abbeys and castles may well have prompted his mind to dreams of travel and adventure.

• Gaillardct'9"M6noii«sur la ChcvaKcrcd'Eo<«Pieces

Jusdficativcs,'* No. 15, p. 398.

The Chevalier D^Eon. 35

His first journey is to Paris, whither his father must have often repaired by reason of his office as sub-delegate ot the Intendant de la G6neralit^. Once in the capital, Charles Genevieve is sent to a school kept by a certain M. Tamier in the Rue de Nevers, near the famous Hdtel de Nesles, and many a time, we are told, he is conducted with the other pupils to bathe, no doubt in the Seine, which flows only a few yards away. Finally, in 1740, our hero goes to the College Mazarin to complete his education, and four years later — he is now sixteen — ^he is confirmed at the church of St. Sulpice. According to his own statements, the name of Marie is given him on this occasion — in addition to the six Christian names which he already possesses— on account of his mother having consecrated him to the Virgin.

Young D6on, having completed his studies in a highly creditable manner, after obtaining the degrees of Dodor of Civil and Canon Law, is called to the bar of the Paris Parliament. This may seem rather a prosaic beginning to a romantic life; still his assiduity to his studies and the thirst for knowledge which he displayed at the outset of his career redound greatly to his credit. At that period young men of good birth and means seldom cared for hard work. A smattering of knowledge, coupled with such natural wit as they might possess, usually sufficed them, eager as they were to leave their books and indulge in all the pleasures

36 The Chevalier jyRon.

which the life of Paris and Versailles then offered —

• • For those were yet the days of halcyon weather,

A Martin's summer, when the nation swam,

Aimless and easv as a wayward feather, Down the full tide of jest and epigram \

A careless time, when France's bluest blood

Beat to the tune of * After us the Flood.' "

That D6on indulged in some of the pleasures of youth may be taken for granted, but he evinced a singularly dispassionate disposition and eschewed affairs of gallantry. He would laugh and jest willingly enough, and empty his glass like a true Burgundian, but he steered clear oixhtjilles de TOpira and oi petite-maison society. His favourite pastime was fencing, and, girlish though he was in face, and short of stature, and to all appearance of a delicate constitution, he acquired such proficiency with the foil and the rapier as to be elected grand prevSt of the salle darmes which he attended.

His set purpose, however, was to make his way in the world, and in this design he was served both by his talents and his family con- ne<5tions. He had three uncles who had risen to responsible and influential positions. One of these, called Jacques D6on de Pommard, after the village of that name so famous for its wines, had become first secretary to Count d'Argenson, Minister of War. He died in 1747, when Charles Genevieve was but nine- teen; still his conne£tions may have been of use

The Chevalier D^Eon. 37

to his nephew«Another uncle, Michel D6on de Geimigny, was a knight of St. Louis and one of the five-and-twenty gentlemen of the King's Scottish guard. He had fought at Dettingen, where he had been badly wounded, and had served the Republic of Genoa for a time with considerable distinction. He was, moreover, known to the King, who had bestowed several pensions upon him, and he enjoyed the parti- cular favour of the powerful house of Noailles. However, it is not likely that he did much for his nephew, for during his later years he resided chiefly in the south of France, where he died in 1752.*

It was in a third uncle, Andr6 D^on de Tissey, that Charles Genevieve found a willing and influential protestor. This relative was for thirty years chief Secretary of Police under the famous D'Argenson and his successors, and it is to his administrative abilities that contem- porary historians of Paris mainly ascribe the efficiency of the city police in the earlier part of the eighteenth century. When the Regent d'Orl^ans died, D^on de Tissey was entrusted with the delicate and important task of making a full inventory of his estate, and the new Duke of Orleans, the Regent's son, was so satisfied with his services that he appointed him his principal secretary.

D^on de Tissey was a bachelor, and it was

^ De la Chcsnaye.

38 The Chevalier D'Eon.

but natural that he should advance the interests of his nephew, the more especially as he could do so without having to loosen his own purse- strings. It was sufficient that he should intro- duce the young man into the society in which he himself moved. Charles Genevieve's father also was able to give him a fair start in life. A sub-delegate of the G^n6ralit6 de Paris himself, he secured for his son the post of secretary to the Intendant de la G^neralit^, M. Berthier de Sauvigny — ^father, it may be noted, of the Berthier who subsequently held the same func- tions, and in consequence of his speculations to raise the price of corn was massacred in 1789 at the same time as his father-in-law, Foulon. As secretary to the Intendant de Paris, young D6on was certain to acquire extensive Know- ledge concerning public business, for the inten- dants not only had charge of commercial and agricultural affairs in their respe<ftive g6n6ralit6s, but were concerned in the levying of all sorts of imposts. They also exercised a surveillance over the Protestant communities, were entrusted with the control of many of the public colleges and libraries, and of all property sequestrated by the state, and indeed with many other matters too numerous to mention.

In 1749, whilst D6on in his secretarial capaci^ was laying in a fund of knowledge which he turned to account in after years, he lost his father, and it is related that when Louis Deon was on his deathbed he addressed Charles

The Chevalier D^Eon. 39

Gcncviivc as his " daughter," saying tenderly,

• ' Do not be uneasy, my daughter; it is as

natural to die as it is to live. I am quitting a bad for a better land. I have been at much pains to teach you how to live, and I must likewise teach you how to die." *

We are tola that D6on lost his father, his uncle De Tissey, and an income of 15,000 livres in the brief space of five days. Writing, however, in 1763, to the Duke de Praslin, he distinctly says that he lost his fortune a year after inheriting it. These various misfortunes proved no doubt a severe blow, but he was not cast down. The information he acquired whilst serving under the Intendant de Paris, enabled him to write a little book on the ^^ Financial Situation of France under Louis XIV. and the Regency." This, his first literary effort, was issued in 1753. D6on about this time became acquainted with the notorious Fr^ron, a base-minded man, who vilified Voltaire in a shameful fashion. Still, Fr6ron was regarded in those days as a leading jour- nalist and reviewer, and aspiring authors courted him readily enough. Writing in his " Lettres sur quelques Ecrivainsde ce Temps" (vol. xiii.), in April, 1754, he says that M. D6on de

' This story, quoted hy Tclfer, does not rest on any sub- stantial foundation. It is given by La Chesnave (from whom it was no doubt originallv derived), but La Chesnaye's asser tions were certainlv inspired by D'Eon at the time when the latter was passing nimself oiFas a woman.

40 The Chevalier D^Eon.

Beaumont^ the author of an excellent little book on French finances," has sent him an epitaph on the Count d'Ons-en-Bray, Dean of the Academy of Sciences, who had died a couple of months previously; and this epitaph he prints with various eulogistic comments, although it is the merest trifle. Written in Latin verse and extending to four-and-twenty lines, it is signed Ludovicus D6on de Beaumont — ^which shows that our hero, with seven Christian names to choose from, had elefted to use that of Louis, by which his father had been known. The Count d'Ons-en-Bray, now but little remembered, was, at the time referred to, the foremost authority on mechanical science in Europe, and had been particularly admired by Peter the Great. Fr^ron calls him, " not only M. Dion's prote6tor, but also his friend," and we may presume that D^on was also intimate with the Count's son, for he says in one of his letters that in 1756 — two years after the old Count's death — he was living at the Hdtel d'Ons-en-Bray in the Rue de Bourbon, Faubourg St. Germain, and that he was ^' the friend of the master of the house, against whose advice it was that he went to Russia."

Early in life D6on likewise became acquainted, doubtless through his family connections, with the Marshal de Belle Isle, son of the financier Fouquet, and with the celebrated Abb^, after- wards Cardinal de Bernis. He moreover.appears to have been received by the Pcnthievres, and

The Chevalier D^Eon. 41

when the beautiful Marie d'Este, Duchess de Pcnthievre, passed away in April, 1754, in all the bloom of her eight-and-twenty summers, he penned a few Latin verses commemorating her virtues, which were inserted by Fr^ron in the "Annce Litt^raire." * In the following year he wrote a memoir on the life and works of the Abb6 Lenglet Du Fresnoy, and this, after appearing in Fr^ron's publication, was prefixed to various editions of Du Fresnoy's writings.

It is known that D^on became one of the royal literary censors for history and belles lettres^ but at what period he obtained this post is un- certain. He may have secured it as the result of his own work as an author, but it is not unlikely that he was appointed on the death of his uncle D^on de Tissey, who also had been a royal censor, and the reversion of whose office may have been granted to Charles Genevieve in accordance with the usage of the time. Dion's degrees as Do£tor of Civil and Canon Law fully qualified him for the post — one rather of honour than of emoluments — the duties of which consisted in perusing the manuscripts of authors, and granting or refusing the necessary licences to publish them. And now the young man was launched in the world. He was of fairly good birth and possessed of considerable talents, and was greatly assisted on his entry into life by the numerous connections of his family.

• "Annec Litteraire,** vol vii., Dec., 1754.

42 The Chevalier D^Eon.

He was therefore neither a nonentity, nor an adventurer, as some writers have contended. His early acquaintance with the Chevalier Douglas, tutor to young Berthier de Sauvigny, has been now for the first time fully accounted for, and although it is impossible to ascertain the exad circumstances of his introdudtion to the Prince de Conti, it has been shown that there is nothing improbable in the contention that he was personally known to the Prince, for not only was he secretary to a most important public fundionary, with whom Conti was necessarily acquainted, but he was also a cen- sor royal, and Conti was of literary tastes, and in the habit of receiving literary men; finally, he was prote6ted by an uncle wno by reason of his functions could at any time obtain access to the highest in the land.

III. '7J5— ■756-

The Chevalier Douglas's Secret Mission to Riinia — Hit Curious Instrudions — Sir Charles Hanbuiy Williams 25 a " bUcIc fox " and Russian Troops as " squirrel skins " — Was Douglas accompanied by Deon? — The Legend of Lia de Beaumont and the Maids of Honour — The Truth about the Princess DashkofF — How Douglas checkmated Sir Charles Hanburv Williams — His return to Russia with Deon — Louis XV, 's mysterious views with r^ard to the latter — "Lefieur" or "LeAnce" to the Czarina? — The Portrait of Deon by La Tour.

S^ the Prince de Conti deciding to entrust the soi-disant Cheva- lier Douglas with the proje<%ed secret mission to Russia, he communicated with the King through TcFcier, chief clerk at the Foreign Office, who possessed considerable influence, if not power. Tercier had been taken into the confidence of Conti and Louis XV., and served them as a " go-between." The Prince no longer excited remark by his fi-equent private interviews with his royal relative. When he had anything to communicate, he either

44 7%^ Chevalier D'Eon.

instru£ted his confidential secretary, Monin, to see Tercier, or saw Tercier in person, and Tercier, in his turn, saw the King's valet-dc- chambre, Lebel, who communicated dire£t with his majesty. Thus the secret diplomacy was carried on in such a way as not to revive the suspicions of Madame ae Pompadour or excite the jealousy of ministers.

With regard to the mission to Russia, the King, for reasons which cannot now be pene- trated, decided to take M. Rouille, then Minister of Foreign AflFairs, in some measure into his confidence. Conti's name was probably not mentioned in the matter; however, M. Rouille approved of the projeded mission, and also of the seledtion of Douglas. The latter, before starting on his journey, received a tortoiseshell snufiF-box with a false bottom, beneath which he found his instru£tions in microscopic hand- writing. He was not required to open any negotiations with the Russian Court, but was to ascertain the condition of the empire from a financial, commercial, and military point of view; to obtain precise information with regard to Sir Charles Hanbury Williams's intrigues, the credit enjoyed by Chancellor BestuchefF and Vice-Chancellor Woronzofi^, and the Czarina's views respedting Austria, England, Poland, Sweden, and Turkey. Further, he was to ascertain the sentiments of the Empress with regard to France, and those which she was " probably inspired with by her ministry

The Chevalier D'Eon. 45

to prevent her from renewing correspondence with his Majesty." To explain this last phrase it should be mentioned that at the time of La Ch^tardie's sojourn in Russia, Elizabeth had, on certain occasions, corresponded privately with Louis XV.

Douglas was moreover instrufted to take notes on all of the subjects indicated, and to embody these in a memoir which he was to send to France, but only after he had left Russia, unless, indeed, the Swedish minister at St. Petersburg (who was in the French interest) should be forwarding despatches to Stockholm by courier, in which case Douglas might avail himself of the opportunity to communicate with Versailles by a safe, although circuitous route. However, he was never to send any- thing through the ordinary post, except a notice of his arrival, and an occasional brief report, in figurative language, of the progress which he was making in obtaining the required information. Moreover, his letters were to be sent to private addresses with which he was ftirnished.

The figurative language which it was decided to employ was sufficiently curious. Douglas was to write as if he were engaged in the fur trade. The words " black fox " were to signify Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, and it the latter's negotiations ror the hire of a Russian army for Hanover should succeed, the Chevalier was to write that " black fox was dear." The words " ermine is in demand " were to mean

46 The Chevalier D'Eon.

that the Russian party dominated at Court; whilst " lynx is in demand " would signify that Austrian counsels were in the ascendant. " The price of sables is falling" would mean that Chancellor BestuchefF no longer exercised his old influence. " They stand at the same price " would imply that he still retained it. Such Russian troops as England might hire were to be called " squirrel skins." Ten squirrel skins would mean 30,000, and twenty squirrel skins 60,000 men. If Douglas should And that he could do nothing at St. Petersburg, he was simply to report that the Russian climate did not agree with his health, and that he needed a remittance for his return journey. If, on the other hand, it was thought fit to recall him, he would receive a letter telling him that a muff had been obtained in France, and that he was not to purchase one in Russia.^

Douglas was to travel as a British tourist, and as he was well acquainted with mineralogy he was to visit en route vzrious mines in Bohemia, Saxony, etc. By adopting this course, his journey, it was considered, would seem per- fedtly natural. Nobody would pay any attention to him, or, if they did, they would simply take him for one of those eccentric Englishmen, who then, as now, were always to be found roaming about the Continent.

Douglas started from Paris in the summer of

^ Boutaric, ^ Correspondance Secrete de Louis X V.**

The Chevalier D^Eon. 47

1755, and, reaching Anhalt, is said to have waited there for his young friend Deon to join him. The sole authori^ for this statement, however, is a certain Count Frottier de la Messeliere, who, a few years later, went to Russia as one of the ornamental gentlemen in the train of the Marquis de THopital when the latter was appointed ambassador. But La Messeliere certainly alludes to a second journey made by Douglas to Russia; he was not in the King's secret, and it may be taken for granted that he knew nothing of this first and most secret mission. Even his account of the second mission is a medley of fadl and fable.

The question whether Douglas was or was not accompanied by D6on when he went to St. Petersburg in 1755 may at first sight seem a trivial one, but, as will presently be shown, it has an important bearing on the story of Dion's career. Those who contend that D^on was already at this time in the confidence of Louis XV. and the Prince de Conti, and was appointed to co-operate with the Scotch cheva- lier in his endeavours at the Muscovite Court — though, for the matter of that, his name is not once mentioned in any official or secret despatch of the time now extant — further assert that he had a private mission specially confided to him by his sovereign, a mission quite distindl from that entrusted to his companion. For instance, he was to convey an autograph letter from Louis XV. to the Czarina, and make all arrangements

48 The Chevalier D*Eon.

for their private correspondence. Further, he was to endeavour to obtain for Conti the princi- pality of Courland and the chief command of the Russian army. From the letters of Louis XV. and Tercier in the French archives, it appears certain, however, that D^on was only entrusted with negotiating the private correspondence at a subsequent period,^ and was then, and then only, provided with the needful ciphers, letters, etc. Moreover, the Courland business was originally confided to Douglas, whose instruc- tions contained notably this phrase: '^ He will make a stay in Courland under pretext of needing rest, but for the purpose of learning the state of that duchy, what the nobles think of the exile and deposition of the Prince of Courland, and the views of the Russian ministry for the government of that principality." Again, although the Prince de Conti was already, in 1755, vaguely desirous of obtaining

• Boutaric's " Corrcspondance Secrete de Louis XV."

(The King to Tercier, February 24, August 7, 24, Sep- tember 15, 1757); Archives des Aflaires Etrangeres: " Memoire de Tercier " (i 758), entitled " Account of the Secret Correspondence in Russia from 1756 to 1758." This last shows that when the King first desired to renew his

frivate correspondence with the Czarina he formally selefted )ouKlas and WoronzofF as intermediaries. As already mentioned (p. 44), Douglas on starting for Russia in 1755 was instruded to make inquiries respeding the Czarina's sentiments with regard to this correspondence. The matter was only entrusted to Deon when, after a first sojourn at St. Petersburg in 1 756, he returned thither late in 1 757. His own statements on the subje^ written long afterwards, are very loosely worded and even conflicting.

Tie Chevalier D^Eon. 49

the dignity of Prince of Courland, it was not at that period, when, although peace as yet prevailed on the Continent, the Czarina was on the point of placing her troops at the service of Great Britain against Louis XV., that he aspired to the command of the Muscovite army. It was after the outbreak of the Seven Years* War, when France and Russia were allied together, that he dreamt of pitting his own military talents against those of the great Frederick, and of marching in triumph upon Berlin.^

Now if D^on went to Russia with Douglas in 1755, for what purpose can he have gone there? He himself, in letters written long afterwards, when he was constantly complaining of the way in which he had been treated by Louis XV.'s ministers, says first one thing and then another. When he mentions, however, that towards the end of 1755 "his destiny dragged him into diplomacy," he is un- doubtedly corredt. Douglas, who had left Paris in the summer, was back again towards the close of the year, and it was then planned that D^on should accompany him on his second mission. Dion's statement, quoted above, was made by him in 1 764; in the previous year, in a letter to the Duke de Praslin, recapitulating his whole career, he had formally declared that he went to Russia in 1756; and it was only

• Vandal, pp. 297-308,

£

50 The Chevalier D'Eon.

later on, when, as Horace Walpole put it, he was off his head, that he began to talk of 1755. In the archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs there are letters of his dated 1756, in which, while deploring his total ignorance of the Muscovite language, he describes the Czarina's Court in a manner clearly implying that he had never been in Russia before. No letters written by Douglas with regard to the mission of 1755 are in existence, but there are numerous despatches of his of the following year in which he alludes to his previous experiences, and in none of these does he on any one occasion mention that he was on his first journey accompanied by D^on.

These particulars are not unimportant, for, if we are to credit romance rather than history, when Douglas arrived at St. Petersburg in the autumn of 1755 he was accompanied by D^on — ^not in masculine attire and with a sword dangling by his side, but in petticoats and possibly with a fan in his hand — not the Ludovicus D6on who wrote Latin epitaphs, but Mademoiselle D^on, or rather. Mademoiselle Lia de Beaumont. For the story runs that Douglas being forced to quit Russia owing to the hostility of the British Ambassador, his niece Mademoiselle Lia (in other words Deon in feminine garb) remained behind, and through Vice-Chancellor WoronzofF obtained access to the Czarina, who was so charmed with the

The Chevalier D^Eon. 51

amiable and witty Parisienne that she admitted her among her maids of honour. Mademoiselle Lia, it is alleged, became lady-reader to her Majesty, and was installed in the palace, where she shared the apartment of the young Countess Catherine Woronzoff, niece of the Vice- Chancellor, and famous subsequently as the Princess Dashkoffl These assertions have given rise to a multitude of scandalous anecdotes, re- calling certain episodes in Byron's " Don Juan."

That the entire story is mere fiction can, however, easily be shown. Catherine Woronzoff was born in 1744, at least so she herself states in her memoirs; consequently in 1755 she was only eleven years of age. She was not then, or ever, a maid of honour. She was educated away from the Court with Vice-Chancellor WoronzofF's daughter. It should be particularly noted that it is with her, as Princess Dashkoff, that Dion's name is associated; he is never mentioned in conne£tion with her elder sisters, who were, however, maids of honour. One of them, Maria, became the Princess Boutourlin, while the other, Elizabeth, who married a M. Paliansky, and who, according to Baron de Br^teuil, resembled a chambermaid, was mistress to the Grand-Duke Peter.

As for Catherine Woronzoff, she married Prince DashkofF in 1759, when she was fifteen, and it was only then that she began to figure at Court, her husband being a captain in the Preobrajensky Guards. It was at this period

52 The Chevalier UEon.

that she became acquainted with Deon — not D^on, however, as Mademoiselle Lia de Beaumont, but as Monsieur D6on de Beaumont, Lieutenant of dragoons and Secretary of Lega- tion to the Ambassador of his most Christian Majesty, a gentleman of literary tastes which she fully shared, and with whom she may have chatted about Helvetius and Voltaire.

The Marquis de THdpital, in a letter to D6on written in 1762, long after the Russian business^ chaffs him with having discovered the Princess's hidden virtues and encouraged her romantic temperament. " It is true," he says, " that you knew her and cultivated her friend- ship from her earliest youth." The Marquis's remark tallies exadly with our contention — the Princess being but fifteen in 1759.

It is well known that shortly after her marriage she was taken into the confidence of the Grand-Duchess Catherine, subsequently helped her to seize the throne, and was then appointed " lady of the portrait.*' She came to England twice, in 1770 and 1779, and on the former occasion, if we are to believe Dion's assertions, she stated in society that she had known him very well at St. Petersburg, where he had passed as being a woman — a phrase which might be interpreted in a variety of ways. Indeed, we have only the veriest tittle- tattle as to what the Princess did or did not say; her own memoirs do not contain the slightest allusion to D6on. In these, speaking

The Chevalier D'Eon. 53

of her visit to England in 1770, the Princess says, ^* I did not go to Court, and made but very few acquaintances, among whom were the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland. • . . In London I remained in the society of Mrs. Morgan and Countess Pouschkin (wife of the Russian Ambassador)." Thii^ account scarcely agrees with the familiar stories of the Princess gadding about town and relating equivocal tales of D^on.

But to return to the legend. Having been installed at the palace Mademoiselle Lia de Beaumont, it is alleged, enjoyed for a time the society of the maids of honour, presented the Czarina with an autograph letter from Louis XV., and finally informed her Majesty that she was not the young damsel that she was supposed to be, but a young man, and had only donned feminine attire in order to obtain access to her Majesty's sacred person. How far the Czarina believed this story we are left in doubt; Mademoiselle Lia with her girlish face and figure certainly looks as if she were a young lady; but of course if she says she is a young man it is difficult not to believe her. At all events, the Czarina is said to have been delighted with the letter sent to her by Louis XV., and to have penned a gracious reply, which was confided to the King's messenger and by him — or shall we say her?— -conveyed to Versailles, with the result that the two countries speedily became allies.

54 ^he Chevalier D'Eon.

Such is the legend — romantic enough, but utterly false. As already remarked, there is not a grain of reliable evidence to show that D6on even went to St. Petersburg in 1755 with the Chevalier Douglas.

We may now accompany the latter on his way. It appears that he travelled under the name of Michel, a name which, according to Count Frottier de la Messeliere, he had already assumed when employed as tutor to M. de Sauvigny's son. One alias more or less was nothing to this Jesuit, by turns Mackenzie, Douglas, and Michel. The last name, it may be pointed out, was calculated to meet with the approval of the French authorities, as it would enable Douglas, if necessary, to pass himself off on his way as a relative of Michel, the French banker and merchant established at St. Peters- burg, who had previously carried political messages from one to the other Court.^

According to English documents, when Douglas reached the Muscovite capital he at once called at the British Embassy, declaring himself to be an English subje£t, related to the Earl of Morton, and asking Sir Charles Han* bury Williams to introduce him at Court. Williams, suspicious as to Douglas's identity, refused to do so; whereupon Douglas sought the assistance of the Swedish minister — ^known to be favourable to France — and the Swede inquired of his English colleague whether he

• See anti^ pp. 18-19.

The Chevalier UEon. 55

obje(^ed to his presenting the Scotch Chevalier. Williams naturally resented the intervention of a foreigner in a matter concerning a subjeA of the British crown, and in the result Douglas,

finding himself unable to obtain access to the Court, hastily left St. Petersburg and returned to France, bitterly complaining, we are told, of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams's treatment, in every town through which he passed.' Such

' Tclfer, p. 13.

56 The Chevalier D^Eon.

in brief is the story as told in the Russian correspondence at our Record OfEce, but the French archives have a very different tale to relate.

According to divers French memoirs and despatches,^ after Douglas had been repulsed by Sir Charles Hanbury Williams and others, he decided to apply to the banker Michel, with whose devotion to the joint interests of Louis XV. and the Czarina he had been made ac- quainted before leaving France. Michel — there was no need of any Lia de Beaumont to go to the imperial palace — ^placed Douglas in communication with Vice-Chancellor Woron- zoff, who, unlike Bestucheff, was known to be favourable to France. WoronzofF thereupon consulted Elizabeth, and Douglas soon ascer- tained that Louis XV. had not been mistaken with regard to the Czarina's sentiments. She really desired to renew diplomatic intercourse with France; personally, she preferred to con- tra6l an alliance with the Court of Versailles rather than with that of St. James; and she declared herself ready to receive and to obtain (on her Chancellor's part, no doubt) " respeft- ful treatment for any envoy of the King of France who would bring with him sufficient powers to sign a treaty." WoronzofF handed to Douglas a written statement to the above effect; and provided with this precious docu- ment the secret envoy at once returned to

^ Affaires Etrangeres — ^^ Lettres et Documents, XXX."

The Chevalier D'Eon, 57

«

France.^ He was not a Jesuit for nothing, however. If on his way back to Versailles he complained so bitterly of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams's treatment, it was undoubtedly be- cause he wished to avert suspicion of his true purpose in journeying to St. Petersburg, or if that purpose were suspe6ted to let it be supposed that he had been unable to accomplish his task. He may be credited with having successfully checkmated the astute British ambassador.

On the other hand, it is true. Sir Charles Hanbury Williams could congratulate himself on the success of his negotiations with Bestu- cheff for the hire of a Russian army. By a treaty signed on September 30th, 1755, Russia had agreed to place at the disposal of Great Britain an army of 70,000 men, for whose services the Czarina was to receive ^100,000 a year. Had Sir Charles Hanbury Williams been cognizant, however, of the intrigues going on between St. Petersburg and Versailles, he might well have doubted whether this arrange- ment would ever be carried into efFe£t. As a matter of fad, it came to nothing, owing to the course taken by Frederick the Great. Alarmed by the prospedt of a Russian army entering Germany, Frederick decided to break with France, whose ally he had been for many years, and hastily came to an understanding with Great Britain — he himself undertaking to defend Hanover against all aggressors. A treaty

^ Affaires Etrangeres — ^Lettres et Documents, XXX.'*

58 The Chevalier UEon.

to this efFedt was signed at Westminster on January i6, 1756, and was shortly afterwards ratified by Frederick at Berlin, despite the entreaties of the Duke de Nivernais, whom Louis XV. hastily despatched from Versailles in the hope of retaining the alliance of the Prussian monarch.

A perfedt revolution in European politics was now impending, and it was more than ever necessary that France should have a reliable agent at St. Petersburg. Michel the merchant had been in correspondence with Douglas ever since the latter's return to France, keeping him well posted with regard to the views of the Czarina and WoronzofF, and urging that France should depart from her policy of reserve.^ As soon as the defedtion of Frederick the Great became known at Versailles, it was decided by the King and M. Rouille, the Foreign Minister, that Douglas should return to Russia. Conti, on this occasion, was not at once taken into the royal confidence, as appears from a letter written on January 14, 1756, by Louis XV. to Tercier, in which the King says: " Should the Prince de Conti speak to you of the Sieur Michel's second journey to Russia, or try to make you speak, you may tell him what you know of the matter, but with the greatest secrecy." * Louis XV. is here evidently alluding to his own envoy Douglas-Michel, and not to Michel the merchant

^ Affaires Etran^es — ^ Memoires et Documents, XXX."

• Boutaric, voL 1. p. 2ii.

The Chevalier D'Eon. 59

and banker, who had been established at St. Petersburg for many years, and had travelled at least a score of times between France and Russia. There can have been no question of his making a "second" journey to Muscovy. Moreover, he was not in France at this time.

Under date February 5, 1756, the "Livre Rouge " specifies that 6,000 livres were handed to the Sieur Michel (Douglas) for his travelling expenses, and thus provided, and bearing a private letter from M. Rouill^ to WoronzofF, the Scotch Chevalier once more set out from Paris.^ Douglas, it is said, now assumed the name of Leonard, which is not impossible. Crafty as he was, he may have appeared in one town as the Sieur Leonard and in another as the Sieur Michel, with the view of throwing German and English spies off the scent. In the French state papers, however, he is invariably referred to by the name of Michel. It is now, and not on the previous occasion, that he stops at Anhalt, whence, according to Count Frottier de la Messeli^re, he writes asking that D6on may be sent to him. La Messeli^re adds that by the intervention of a certain Madame de Binnting, Douglas obtained at Anhalt an introdu6lion to the Duchess of Anhalt-Zerbst (mother of the Grand-Duchess Catherine), who gave him letters

^ On the authority apparently of various ps^rs at the Public Record Office, Captain Telfer tells us that Doudas had ^a great deal of money to dispose of," but from the French state papers the contrary would appear to have been the case.

6o The Chevalier D^Eon.

of recommendation to the Russian Court and also to Michel the merchant. He cannot really have needed any letters to the latter, since he was already well acquainted with him; still, adhering to his Jesuitical pra<%ices, he may have purposely concealed this acquaintance, not wishing the true nature of his mission or his previous journey to Russia to be known.

D6on, according to his own account, raises with great difficulty a loan of 10,000 livres for his expenses, sets out, and having apparently joined Douglas at Anhalt, the pair proceed together to St. Petersburg, where they arrive on April 22nd (N.S.), betaking themselves at once to the house of Michel the merchant, with whom for a time they reside. Douglas complains to Michel that he is short of funds,^ and Michel places 10,000 livres at his disposal, and for the second time repairs to Vice-chan- cellor WoronzofF to inform him of the French envoy's arrival.* WoronzofF receives Douglas that same evening, and Douglas hands him the private letter from M. Rouill^ with which he has been entrusted. Woronzoff replies to this letter under date April 20th (O.S.), and Douglas forwards the reply to France. About this time he also writes to M. Rouille, thanking him for having sent him D^on. Alluding evidently to the days when he and D^on were together

^ This 18 in formal contradidion with Captain Telfer's

statement that he had ^a great deal of monej to dispose of."

• AfiairesEtrangeres — ^ M^moires et Documents, XXX."

The Chevalier D^Eon. 6i

in the service of the Intendant de Paris, he says, ^'I have long been acquainted with his (D^n's) intelligence, zeal, and attachment to his work. He will be very useful to me, and also of good service to the King. He is steady and prudent." Then comes this remarkable passage: Yesterday evening I presented him (Dcon) to Vice-Chancellor Count Woronzoff, who received him with kindness and politeness. His disposition seems to please the Vice-Chan- cellor very much, but after considerable reflec- tion the latter was not of opinion as previously that he (Dc^on) should follow the first plan formed as to his destination ('qu'il suivtt le premier plan de sa destination '), for particular reasons known to the Empress, with which I shall have the honour to acquaint you in detail later on, and of which I hope you will approve." ^ Now it should be noted, first, that D^on publishes this letter himself; ' secondly, that it shows him to have been introduced in 1756 to Woronzoff, with whom the partisans of the Lia de Beaumont legend would have us to believe that he was acquainted since 1755; thirdly, that some first plan had been formed with regard to him, but was abandoned for reasons of the Empress's.

' Captain Telfer, who quotes the earlier part of Douglas's letter, makes no reference to the latter portion, apparently because it does not taUy with his own theories.

• ^ Lettres, Memoires et N^ociations du Chev. d'Eon.**

London, 1764. The letter is simply dated 1756; no month being indicated.

62 The Chevalier D^Eon.

Neglc6tcd by Dion's previous biographers, this letter, in the present writer's opinion, throws a vivid light on this part of the Chevalier's career. What was the " first plan " concerning him which was abandoned? Was it that he should enter the Czarina's service as " reader," so that France might have an efficient spy at the Russian Court? Douglas, it may be observed, was referred to as a librarian in M. Rouill^'s private letter to WoronzofF — ^this course being adopted by way of precaution, as the letter might possibly miscarry.^ Now there is some analogy between the functions of librarian and reader, and the story of D^on having a£ted as reader to the Empress may have had its origin in the circumstance that he arrived at St. Petersburg with Douglas, who gave himself out to be a librarian; or it may even have been the original intention of his patrons that he should become the Czarina's reader. For reasons of the Empress's, however, the plan fell through.

This view of the matter is supported by a statement made by D^on himself. In recapi- tulating his services, in his letter to the Duke de Praslin, dated June 5, 1763, he says that when he was sent to Russia in 1756 reasons of policy required that certain views entertained with regard to himself, ^^ and for which he felt some repugnance," should be abandoned. Now,

' Telfer.

The Chevalier D^Eon. 63

one can well understand that he should not care for the suggested post of reader to the Empress. Indeed, if he entered the Russian Court in that capacity, it would not be so much with the obje6t of winning Elizabeth's confidence and ascertaining her views — these she could readily communicate through her confidant WoronzofiF, or her French attendant, Madame Caravaque, who was in constant com- munication with Michel the merchant — as for the purpose of secretly spying upon BestuchefF, the Grand-Duke Peter, and the Grand-Duchess Catherine; in a word, on all who were opposed to French influence in Russia. Now, secret emissary though he may have been, D^on, still young and uncor- rupted, with high ambitions and ideals, can hardly have cared to play the part of a house- hold spy.

Another point here arises. Supposing that he was intended for the post of reader, was he to be a leBeur (male reader) or a kStrice (female reader)? If indeed it was proposed that he should appear at the Russian Court as a woman, one can the more readily understand his repug- nance for the task assigned him; for whatever he may have done or may have become at a later stage in his career, it is on record that at this early period of his life he disliked and resented all allusion to his eflfeminate appear- ance. None the less, those who believe in the legend assert that Deon did serve the Empress

64 The Chevalier D^Eon.

as lady reader/ and in support of their conten- tion, and to prove that about this time he was wont to dress as a woman, they point trium- phantly to a portrait in which he is shown at the age of five-and-twenty or so, in female guise, wearing a low-necked dress, and display- ing an ample bosom, together with the cross of St. Louis — ^which he did not obtain, however, till he was ten years older. The portrait is attributed to La Tour, and if correftly so, it must have been executed at the cost of someone else than D^on, for he certainly could not have afforded to pay the high price which the Court pastellist was obtaining at the time.* If Conti,

^ Madame Campan, whose father, Genest, became one of the chief clerks of the Foreien Office, says that Deon was leffeurj not le£frice. We shall have something to say later on with reference to Madame Campan's assertions on this and other points.

• The portrait in question is given as a frontispiece to

the present work, having been copied from a mezzotint engraving by Francis Haward, R.A., by whom it was published in January, 1788. Haward engraved the portrait from a painting by Angelica Kauffinann, and she copied it, we are told, from a pastel by La Tour, and is also supposed to have introduced into it the cross of St. Louis, which can scarcely have figured in the original design. At the time when It was engraved, Angelica KauiFmann's painting was in the possession of a certain Mr. George Keate, and it may still exist nowadays in some private collection. Of the pastel by La Tour, however, we can find no trace whatever. We only have the engraver's authority that it served Angelica KaufFmann for her painting, and the question arises whether any such pastel ever existed, and if it existed, whether it was really the work of La Tour. Many of the latter's sketches and studies exist at St«Quentin; indeed.

The Chevalier D^Eon. 65

as has been suggested, struck by the effemi- nate appearance of D^on, conceived the idea of sending him to Russia as a woman so that he might the more readily obtain admission to the Court, it is not unlikely that D^on before his departure rehearsed the part he was to play, and that Conti, delighted with his appearance, engaged La Tour to execute the pastel in ques- tion. D^on having started off* after Douglas, the pair proceeded to St. Petersburg, where, however, the "first plans" with regard to Charles Genevieve were abandoned, both on account of the objedlions raised by the Empress and of Dion's own repugnance for the part assigned him. It is in this way only that one can reconcile the assertions of the legend with the fadts of history. Otherwise, the portrait of Deon as a young woman is but a fancy portrait executed many years subsequently to

he preserved the first esqusssis of almost cveij pastel he executed, but among these there is no portrait of Deon.

Captain Telfer has pointed out appropriately enough that Deon was scarcely in a position to employ so renowned an artist as La Tour, whose terms were extremely high. In 1 755 — ^about the very time, when, judging by appearances, this portrait would have been executed — La Tour was engaged on his fiimous pastel of Madame de Pompadour, for which, as we learn from M. Champfleury's *' Les Peintres Celebres,'* he asked the roval favourite no less than 48,000 livres, and bitterly complamed when she declined to pay him more than half that amount. Four years previously the lowest sum he would accept for a small portrait was 5,000 livres, and 5,000 livres meant more than a year's income to Deon, who, as the reader will remember, had lost his fortune.

F

66 The Chevalier D'Eon,

support his own solemn asseverations that the whole world had been mistaken with regard to him, and that he was indeed a woman and not a man!

IV. April, 1756 — June, 1757.

Reception of Douglas by the Czarina — The Mytterious Madame Caravaquc — A Plot to murder Dougl^ Deon, and Michel — Douglas and Deon become Diplomatic Personages — A Glance at the Russian Court — N^otia- rions for a Franco-Russian Alliance — Douglas is extri- cated from his Difficulties by Deon — Deon popular with the Russian Nobles but an Enigma to the Women — A mark of favour from the Czarina — D£on leaves for France with important Commissions — His Adventures on the Road — He conveys the News of the Disaster of Prague to Versailles — A broken leg — Louis XV.'s presents to Deon, including a Commission in a regiment of Dragoons.

3UGLAS and Dion had scarcely reached the Russian capital be- fore Sir Charles Hanbury Wil- liams penetrated their true character. WoronzofF admitted that the Scotch Chevalier was entrusted with a private commission from Louis XV.; as for BestuchefF, how greatly his power had diminished may be gathered from his de- claration that he had been kept quite out of the secret, and had known nothing of Douglas's

68 The Chevalier UEon,

journey until his arrival at Riga. Whilst there, Douglas had boastfully represented himself to be a French envoy extraordinary, and had con- sequently been received by the governor with all customary honours. The Czarina was some- what disappointed on finding that Louis XV. had simply sent her the same unofficial agent as previously, instead of the plenipotentiary she had asked for; however, Douglas, shortly after his arrival, was presented to her as a Scotcn gentleman in the French service, and WoronzofF handed him a fresh memoir expressing the Empress's desire for a fuller understanding with Versailles and asking that the Chevalier might be accredited as Charg6 d'affaires;, whilst promising that, in the meantime, he should be " treated with distinftion and listened to with consideration as being a person sent on the part of his most Christian Majesty."

Douglas prudently refrained from sending this memoir to Versailles through the ordinary post, in which case it might have fallen into the hands of Bestucheff. He confided it with despatches announcing his reception by the Czarina to Michel the merchant, who travelling in hot haste accomplished the journey to Versailles in eigh- teen days.* Michel was accompanied ori this occasion, curiously enough, by Madame Cara- vaque, the Empress's French attendant, who may possibly have been entrusted with some special mission by her mistress. Madame Caravaque

^ Afiaires Etrangeres — ^^Memoires et Documents^ XXX."

I'he Chevalier D^Eon. 69

was at this period apparently an elderly woman — ^for a certain Sieur Mathy writing to Douglas from Dantzig calls her a bonne dame — ^still, whatever may have been her age, it is not im- probable that her conne<5tion with the Czarina and Michel, and her journeys between France and Russia, contributed to confirm and swell the Lia de Beaumont legend. Her departure from St. Petersburg with Michel took place apparently about the middle of June, for Sir Charles Hanbury Williams wrote to the Earl of Holderness on June 12th announcing that "a creature of the Vice-Chancellor" would soon set out for Paris. Telfer conceives that the " creature " referred to was D^on, but there is no record of D^on having come to France at this period. On the contrary, documents in the French archives show him to have been busy at St. Petersburg helping Douglas to contend against the intrigues of Chancellor BestuchefF. Bestucheff, like many politicians of the time, appears to have been a very unscrupulous per- sonage. Some time afterwards, when he had fallen from power, documents were found among his papers showing that he had plotted the murder of Douglas, Michel, and D^on. According to La Messeliere, one night, at the period we are dealing with, Michel's house was attacked by armed men, and shots were fired through the windows of the room in which Douglas slept. Fortunately the bullets simply lodged in the wall. Life at St. Petersburg was

70 The Chevalier D^Eon.

certainly not coukur de rose for the envoys of Louis XV. at that time. However, Michel's journey to Versailles bore fruit. In July Douglas was accredited as Charg6 d'affaires and D6on was appointed Secretary of Legation. It is hinted that before they were officially re- ceived there were some stormy scenes between the Empress and her Chancellor, for the latter was still bitterly opposed to France. However, as he saw power fast slipping from him, rather than lose all authority he consented to do the Czarina's bidding.

Douglas and D^on now took up their abode at the Apraxin palace^ and were received in solemn audience by Elizabeth. The young Secretary of Legation seems to have been greatly struck by the magnificence of the Im- perial Court, and we find him writing to Tercier that he had seen the Czarina " sur- rounded by a brilliant company of maids of honour, a veritable troop of nymphs well worthy of the curiosity of foreigners." *

In the Court to which D6on now obtained an entree he found two parties in presence — ^the friends and the foes of France. Whilst BestuchefF's authority was waning, that of Woronzoff increased day by day. Woronzoff

^ Archives des Affaires Etrangeres. Had Deon been in the intimacy of the Empress and her maids for a year pre- viously, as the supporters of the legend assert, he would cer- tainly not have written this in the summer of 1756 to Tercier, who was well acquainted with all the phases and details of the Russian mission.

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The Chevalier D^Eon. 71

was a partisan of the French alliance, as far as it might prove useful to Russia, and so was Count Ivan SchouvalofF, the Czarina's lover, whose French tastes were so pronounced that all his clothes and furniture were sent from Paris, whilst he also kept himself well supplied with new French books, and proteded various French artists who had settled at St. Petersburg. On the other hand^ the Czarina's nephew, the Grand-Duke Peter, heir-presumptive to the Russian throne, was strongly swayed by German sympathies, whilst his wife, Catherine of Anhalt- Zerbst (afterwards Catherine II.), was particu- larly desirous of a good understanding with Great Britain. She had the greatest aversion from her husband, who was deformed and badly marked by the small-pox; and almost ever since their marriage she had led an ex- tremely dissolute life. He, on his side, had his mistress, Elizabeth Woronzoff, and such time as he did not spend with her, or in drilling his Holsteiner guards, or in strutting about in a uniform carefully copied from that of his beau idial^ Frederick the Great, he devoted to smoking and drinking. The Czarina herself having become extremely indolent, it resulted that Catherine had acquired great influence at St. Petersburg — ^the more easily, indeed, as, although of German birth, she had ever en- deavoured to identify herself with her adoptive country.

As soon as the intrigues for the despatch of

72 The Chevalier D'Eon.

a French envoy to Russia had come to the knowledge of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, the latter had endeavoured to thwart them by appealing to Catherine's influence; and Cathe- rine had willingly enough entered into his views, but had explained that she was unable to do anything through lack of money. She had asked Williams for ^10,000,* which may or may not have been sent to her; at all events, the effort to prevent the reconciliation of France and Russia had failed.

Catherine continued supporting English interests after Douglas had been received as Charge d'affaires, and in this course she was not only encouraged by Williams and Bestu- cheff, but also by her lover, the handsome young Count Stanislas Poniatowski, Polish minister at St. Petersburg, who, although he prided himself on the friendship of Voltaire, Madame Geof}Tin,and other French notabilities, was opposed to any exercise of French influence in Russia. He was, moreover, extremely in- timate with Williams, by whom it is not un- likely he was subsidized.

"The young Court" — as Peter, Catherine, and their entourage were styled — ^was thus entirely opposed to France, and although Douglas and D^on had the support of the Czarina, WoronzofF, and Schouvaloff, their task was by no means an easy one. That

• Sir C. H. Williams to the Earl of Holderness (most

secret), July 9, N.S., 1756.

The Chevalier D^Eon. 73

task was to prepare the way for the co-opera- tion of Russia with France and Austria against Prussia and England, for the result of Frederick the Great's understanding with Great Britain for the defence of Hanover had been that France and Austria, enemies for many years, had now become reconciled, and on May i, 1756, had contraAed an offensive and defensive alliance against all their enemies. Whilst desiring that Russia should join the compad, France wished, however, to except Turkey from the provisions of the treaty, being un- willing to support the Czarina in any aggressive war against the Sultan.

Douglas and Deon were a<%vely engaged in their negotiations when war broke out. In August, 1756, Frederick the Great — expedting to be attacked by Austria — resorted to the favourite Prussian system of anticipating the enemy, marched into Saxony, compelled the Saxon troops to capitulate, and then drafted them nolens volens into his own army, whilst the Austrian forces were yet encamped in the mountains of Bohemia. The situation was now critical. In their endeavours to bring about the projeded alliance, Douglas and D^on adted in concert with, or rather, under the leadership of Prince Esterhazy, Austrian am- bassador at St. Petersburg, who, in his anxiety to secure the co-operation of the Czarina against Prussia, advised the Scotch Chevalier not to insist upon the stipulation with regard to

74 ^ke Chevalier D'Eon.

Turkey; and In the result Douglas added to the draft of the treaty which had been sent to him, a " most secret ' clause, by which it was specified that in the event of a war between Russia and Turkey, France would render the former power some pecuniary assistance.

As soon as the treaty was signed, late in 1756, D^on was anxious to take it to France. But Douglas preferred to entrust it to Michel, who had returned to St. Petersburg with Madame Caravaque in the previous September, bringing with him the tidings that France was disposed to maintain permanently, not a mere charg^ d'affaires like Douglas, but a duly accredited am- bassador in Russia. The despatches added that this ambassador (the Marquis de THdpital) was already chosen, and would soon set out for his post.

The treaty negotiated by Douglas having been confided to Michel, the latter once more started for Versailles, and on January i, 1757 (O.S.), Deon is found writing to Tercier: "I desired to be the bearer of this monument of your own and M. Douglas's triumph; but this is a justice due to M. Michel by reason of the truly patriotic zeal which he has so far dis- played on every occasion." * D^on was, how- ever, sadly mistaken when he likened the treaty to a triumph. The secret clause with regard to Turkey excited the ire of Louis XV. and his ministers, the King denounced Douglas's "stupidity," and finally wrote a letter to the

' Archives des Afiaires Etrangeres.

The Chevalier D^Eon. 75

Czarina, asking that the secret clause might be annulled. At the same time he proposed to her that they should engage together in a private correspondence. He knew that she would be flattered by this suggestion, which he hoped would in some measure atone for his refusal to ratify the secret clause. Through Tercier, moreover, he sent Douglas private instructions with reference to this correspon- dence, which was to pass through his (Douglas's) hands and those of WoronzofF, — D^on not being mentioned.*

Upon being reprimanded for having intro- duced the " most secret clause " into the treaty, the Scotch Chevalier was sadly cast down. If we are to believe D^on, it was he who ex- tricated his superior from his painful position. He saw BestuchefF in the presence of the Czarina and her lover, Schouvaloff, and after a stormy scene — ^for the Chancellor was opposed to any treaty with France if the most secret clause were not adhered to— the obnoxious stipulation was cancelled, and the rest of the treaty ratified.

This was a great success for D^on, but it was not his only one. The reconciliation and

^ This is clearly set forth by Tercier himself, in his historical MS. memoir on the secret correspondence from which we have frequently quoted, and which thoroughly disposes of the reckless assertions of Deon's biographers, that Deon had had private charge of this correspondence since the year 1755.

76 The Chevalier D'Eon.

alliance of France and Russia, and the invasion of Saxony by Frederick the Great, had caused Conti to enlarge the scope of his personal ambition. He no longer aspired merely to the principality of Courland, but desired the chief command of the Russian army, that he might lead it to vidlory and distinguish him- self in the eyes of Europe. This intrigue he confided to Douglas and D^on. The former, on being privately instructed by Tercier in the King's name (Tercier himself tells us this), that he was to adt with great circumspection in anything concerning Conti personally, placed the matter entirely in Dion's hands, no doubt because he wished to relieve himself of an irk- some responsibility; and D^on, all zeal and impulsiveness, soon brought the affair to a successful issue, at least so far as Russia was concerned.

The young Secretary of Legation had now been a twelvemonth at St. Petersburg, and we may well believe that he had become a general favourite there. Whilst discharging his official duties in an able manner, he had collected a variety of information, which he proposed to embody in a lengthy memoir on the political situation of Russia and the mysteries of its government; and yet he had by no means neglected to take part in the festivities and amusements of aristocratic society. Naturally gay, of engaging manners and considerable wit, fond alike of a glass and a joke, a skilful

The Chevalier LfRorii jj

horseman and swordsman, he was sought after and entertained by many great personages^ With the men, all of them hard drinkers and superb fencers, he was a hail-well-met com- panion, whilst to the women he proved some- what of an enigma. The Court of St. Peters- burg in those days was even more dissolute than that of Versailles, where appearances were in some measure kept up; whereas the Musco- vite grandees, their spouses and their daughters, indulged in open debauchery. No wonder, then, that D^on should have occasioned general surprise by his abstention from all amorous intrigues. He was polite and empress^ towards the women, but matters never went any further; and the circumstance of his chaste life, coupled with his effeminate face, not unlikely gave rise to the rumour: "The young French secretary is a girl."

Those in authority, however, judged him at his worth. Bestucheff distrusted him, and with good cause, while Woronzoff favoured and patronized him. The treaty between France and Russia having been ratified, minus the secret clause, it was arranged that D6on should convey the ratifications to France. At the same time, Woronzoff informed him that the Czarina was willing to offer Conti both Cour- land and the command of her armies, provided that Louis XV. should approve of such a course; and D6on was requested to see Conti in Paris and inform him of this decision.

78 The Chevalier D'Eon.

The young man was busy with his prepara- tions for departure when he received a note from M. WolkofF, principal secretary of the Supreme Council — ^the same who subsequently betrayed his country by communicating the Russian plan of campaign to Frederick the Great — asking him to call on BestuchefF. The Chancellor proved extremely polite — ^he hoped, no doubt, that he should never look on Deon's face again — and not only wished him a bon voyage^ but handed him, on behalf of the Empress, a sum of three hundred ducats as a mark of the imperial favour. This present was virtually a godsend to D^on, who, at this period, was only rich in hopes.

Besides conveying the ratifications of the treaty and the message for Conti to France, D^on is said to have been entrusted with letters from the Czarina to Maria Theresa and Louis XV.; he was also, we are told, " the bearer to the Courts of Vienna and Versailles of Elizabeth's friendly assurances that the treaty of subsidies with Great Britain was no longer of efFe<5t, and that the eighty thousand men whom she had assembled in Livonia and Courland should henceforth adl in concert with the forces of Austria and France.* Deon was further charged

' Until March, 1757, Sir C. H. Williams seems to have been under the delusion that he was ^ well rather than ill in the Czarina's good opinion. In a letter to the Earl of Holderness (March 22, N.S.), he plumes himself on the friendly messages which he has received from the favourite, Schouvalofl^ though at the same time deploring that people

The Chevalier D'Eon. 79

to deliver the Russian plan of campaign, and was commissioned by Count SchouvalofF to take with him 50,000 livres in gold, being a gift from the Empress to Voltaire, who had received her commands to write the life of Peter the Great."* In this connection it would seem, from papers in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at the Tonnerre Library, that D^on, while collecting information about Russia, its history and institutions, had been allowed to transcribe documents at the palace of Peterhof; these, in all probability, being intended for the use of Voltaire in the preparation of the his- torical memoir ordered of him. It is, however, certain that some of the papers found their way to Versailles, and were laid before Louis XV. or his ministers; and, according to a strange but not impossible theory, among them was that famous " will " of Peter the Great which Napoleon I. was accused of having forged in 1 8 1 1 . Those who adopt this view contend that the copy of the ** will " sent or handed by Deon to his superiors was disregarded by them

should have accused him to the Empress of being in the King of Prussia's interest. "Some," he plaintively adds, "have added that her Majesty ought to look upon me more as a Prussian spy than as an English ambassador."

• Telfer, p. 23. The livre was almost equivalent to the

modern franc, so that Voltaire received about ^2,000 for his life of Peter, exclusive of profits derived from the sale of the book. Prof. Alexandrenko of Warsaw has lately dis- covered that the writing of the work was originally instigated by Fedor Veselovski, previously Peter the Great's minister in England.

8o The Chevalier D^Eon.

and their successors in office, and was possibly at last destroyed, but that another copy was found among Dion's papers after his death.

Whatever truth there may be in this story, which is referred to elsewhere,* it is certain that D6on, at the time of his departure from Russia in 1757, had already rendered con- siderable services to his country. Entrusted with important commissions, and greatly elated as to his future prospedts, he travelled with all diligence. It was about the middle of April when he left St. Petersburg; on the 21st he reached Riga, whence he wrote a glowing letter to Douglas, blessing the lucky star which had procured him the Chevalier's acquaintance and attachment, and recording the fa£t that he had hitherto lived solely at his own expense, without ever having received any money what- ever either from ministers or seigneurs. Refer- ring to the Czarina's present, he remarked that in the course of his literary career he would find a thousand opportunities to praise the virtues, grandeur, and generosity of her imperial majesty: and he wound up by saying to Douglas, " My pen writes what my heart thinks, but if it wrote down all the gratitude I owe to you, I should never get to Paris." *

The war prevented D6on from taking the shortest route to France by way of Berlin; so from Riga he speeds onward towards Vienna.

^ See Appendix to this volume. ' Archives des Afikires Etrangeres.

The Chevalier D^Eon. 8i

At Bieloyestok in Poland he encounters the Marquis de THdpital, who is to supersede Douglas as French representative in Russia, and who, although appointed in June, 1756, is now, at the end of April, 1757, yet on his way to St, Petersburg. We are told that it was the attempt made by Damiens on the life of Louis XV. that had retarded his journey, but the truth is that the Marquis, an elderly epicure, who for many years had led an easy and luxurious life as French ambassador at Naples^ was by no means anxious to brave a Russian winter, and had therefore travelled through Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, and Poland as leisurely as he could.

With UHdpital we find Count Frottier de la Messeliere, the Marquis de Bermond, the Marquis de Foug^res, the Baron de WittenghofF, and divers other noble and gallant gentlemen whose manners and whose attire are destined to imbue the Muscovites with awe and admiration; while in the train of this wondrous embassy appear eighty secretaries, equerries, and valets. A brave company, no doubt, beside which D6on, with his modest equipage, must have appeared quite insignificant. Nevertheless the Marquis is delighted to see him, and obtains from him much important and practical information respedting Russia, with which, so far, he him- self is totally unacquainted.

After a somewhat hurried interview, D^on travels on to Vienna. There the Customs*

82 The Chevalier D'Eon.

officers refuse to allow him to enter the city without first searching his effe<5ts9 and it is in vain that he produces his papers showing his diplomatic status. As he will not submit to what he considers a gross indignity, he has to pass the night in a guard-room, to which he is admitted by the kindness of a sergeant of hussars. Early on the morrow, however, he sends an account of his night's adventure to Baron de Toussaint, a favourite of the Emperor, with the result that the offending Customs' officers are dismissed, whilst the sergeant is promoted to the rank of lieutenant. D6on finds Vienna all gloom and consternation. Descending upon Austrian territory from Dresden, Frederick the Great in the space of a fortnight has covered Bohemia with Prussian troops. Before Prague his forces have encountered Marshal Brown, and, after a battle of eleven hours' duration (May 6), have flung the Austrian army back upon the city in all the disorder of a rout. Brown is mortally woimded; and Frederick now moves to, and bombards Prague, which for lack of provisions seems on the point of surrendering.

There is no French ambassador to Austria at this time in Vienna, but the French minister to Poland happens to be there. Count Charles Fran9ois de Broglie, son of the first and brother of the second Marshal of that name; himself a man of great energy and talent, witty, vivacious, short of stature, but " bearing his herd eredt like

The Chevalier D'Eon. 83

a young cock," says D'Argcnson, and "with sparkling eyes/* adds the Abb^ Georgel, " which made him look like a flaming volcano/' The Count is not only French minister to Poland; he is in the King*s secret, he is one of the chief agents of the secret diplomacy, and he and D^on are destined in after years to exchange scores of letters and despatches. But we must not anticipate. Broglie and D^on meet at Vienna, and Broglie commissions the young secretary to carry the direful and all-important tidings of Prague to Versailles.*

"The campaign is lost for the Austrians," wrote Frederick in a letter to his mother from the field of battle. " I have my hands free with 1 50,000 men. We are masters of a kingdom which will supply us with both men and money." Unfortunately for him, however, his success

• Telfcr, in his " Strange Career of the Chevalier D'Eon,"

says that Deon was entrusted with ^ good tidings and grati«fying intelligence," but how Louis XV. could have been grati- fied by the defeat of his ally Maria Theresa we leave the reader to judge; the more especially as Austria now seemed at the very mercy of Prussia, for her only other army was far away. Wnen the tide turned in favour of Austria six weeks later, Deon had already communicated the bad news of which he was the bearer to the French government. All the writers upon Deon have blundered with regard to this episode in his career. Gaillardet formally declares, the battle before Prague on May 6th to have been an Austrian vi6bry; Telfer implies the same; and Vandal, less ignorant, imagines that it was the news of the battle of Kolin that Deon took with him to Versailles. However, Marshal de Belle-Isle's letter quoted on the following paee shows that Deon was in Paris before the engagement of Kolin was fought.

84 T^he Chevalier D^Eon.

turned his head for a time, and on June i8 Marshal Daun was able to save Prague and Austria on the heights of Kolin.

D^on accomplished the latter part of his iourney with the utmost speed. At Strasburg he certainly halted to lodge Voltaire's 50,000 livres with the bankers Hermani and Dietrich; but he was soon on his way again, and his coach having being upset on the road he reached his destination with a broken leg. He sent in his despatches, and on June 1 6, two days before the Austrian viftory at Kolin, Marshal de Belle- Isle, the French Minister of War, wrote to him inquiring after his health and remarking: " You do not forget how fond I was of your father." Whilst lying up under surgical treatment — ^we are told that the King sent his own surgeon to attend upon him — Deon prepared the memoir on the institutions of Russia for which he had previously colledled materials. Both by the King and his ministers, it is said, he was com- plimented upon it, and, a month or two later, Louis XV. expressed his appreciation of Dion's services by sending him a gratuity from his privy purse, a golden snuiF-box adorned with pearls and his portrait, together with a lieutenant's commission in the " Colonel- General Dragoons." As for the ministers, when D^on was able to wait on them they received him with the utmost kindness.

V. July, 1757 — AncnsT, 1760.

Cond's Quarrel with the King — The Well-Beloved changes Deon to D'Eon — The young Difdomatist is taken into the Royal Confidence — Conti's Dcsignt foil, and he resigns the " Pocltct Vizicrship " — Recall of Sir C. Hanbury Willianu — The Extravagances of the Czarina and the Intrigues of Catherine — The Fall of Bestucheff — Catherine appeals for French Help — The Cipher CorrcspondcncebetweenElizabethand the Well-Beloved — A Do£hir, a Loan, and a Brace of Ai^on — Bernis falb and Choiseui rises — Tercier's Change of Position— The Russians to invade Scotland — D'Eon in High Favour- He induces L'Hfipitai to disobey his Instructions — The "dear" Marquis — Handsome Breteuil despatched to Russia — His curious secret Instru^ons — The Truth about Lfouis XV. and Poland — Rewards for D'Eon — He blls ill and turns his Back on Siberia for ever.

3s soon as D<ion had recovered from the efFefts of his accident, he was anxious to call at the Temple to apprize Conti of the . Czarina's oiFer respecting Cour- land and the command of the Muscovite troops. But before he could do this it was necessary he should have the King's sanation. During the young diplomatist's absence in

86 The Chevalier D'Eon.

Russia, Conti had quarrelled with his royal relative. At the outbreak of the Seven Years* War, he had applied for a command on the Rhine, but this had been refused him and given to the Prince de Soubise at the instigation of Madame de Pompadour, to whom Conti — almost alone among the princes of the blood royal — ^would never consent to humble himself. On finding Soubise entrusted with the post he coveted he was sorely vexed, and abstained for a time from appearing at Court. Louis XV. was not at first particularly afFedted by this be- haviour: " I thought I had the right to choose whom I liked," he said. " If the Prince sulks, it is his own affair." At the end of January, 1757, however, Conti's ill-humour subsisting, the Well-Beloved wrote to Tercier that it was impossible for the Russian correspondence to continue passing through the Prince's hands. A fortnight afterwards he wrote with increased displeasure: " Do not speak to me any more about the Prince de Conti; " and, as previously shown, he had already instructed Douglas through Tercier to behave with great circum- spection with regard to any of the Prince's personal designs.

On calling upon Tercier, D^on was made acquainted with all this for the first time, and realized that, however much he might desire to serve his early patron, it was advisable for him not to be too zealous lest he should offend the King. Still, he asked the royal permission

The Chevalier UEon. 87

to deliver WoronzoflTs message to Conti, and, on July 20, Louis XV. wrote somewhat pettishly to Tercier: " Since M. d'Eon {sic) ^ is com- missioned by M. WoronzofF to see M. le Prince de Conti it is necessary he should see him, but he must render you an exad account of the (Prince's) reply." With this authorization, D^on, or D'Eon, as his name may henceforth be written — ^for, following, it would seem, the royal example, the ministers, Tercier and others, now adopted the latter style — repaired to the Temple, where his conmiunication imbued Conti with renewed hope. His negotiations with the King respecting the Czarina's offers continued for a couple or months, from the end of July to that of September. Tercier a<%ed as the intermediary, and, incessantly journeying between Versailles and the Temple, or the chiteau de TIsle-Adam, Conti's summer residence, he received from the Prince voluminous memoirs, which he trans- mitted to Louis XV., from whom in replv he received laconic notes. La Pompadours passionate rancour was making itself felt.

Meantime, what was to become of D'Eon f He himself, it appears, proud of his commission as a lieutenant ot dragoons, was anxious to join the army, but the Marquis de I'Hdpital, now installed at St. Petersburg, wished him to return to Russia, the more especially as, by way of

' Boutaric, vol. i. p. 214, Archives Nationales, K. 157. This is apparently the first occasion on which Louis XV. writes D'Eon for Deon.

88 The Chevalier D'Eon.

throwing a sop to Bestucheff, it had been arranged that Douglas, whom the Chancellor detested, should be sent back to France. The indolent Marquis did not care to face the difficulties of the situation without some help, and having been greatly struck with the dash- ing young secretary, whom he had encountered at Bieloyestok, and whom he knew to be well informed with regard to Russian affairs, he solicited that he might be sent to him. The Abb^ (afterwards Cardinal) de Bernis, Minister for Foreign Affairs, consented, saying that M. D'Eon de Beaumont, who would be of great use both to the Marquis and the King's service, should be sent out as first secretary to the embassy. At the same time. Marshal de Belle-Isle wrote to L'H6pital: " I was very fond of his (D'Eon's) uncle, and on that account I took an interest in him; but now I take an interest in him for his own sake." Thus D'Eon had evidently won the good opinion of those in power.

We know nothing of D'Eon's relations with his family about this time, but he no doubt acquainted his mother and sister with the favour he now enjoyed. In this year, 1757, his sister. Marguerite Fran9oise, married Captain Thomas O'Gorman, of Walsh's Irish regiment in the French service, and it is not unlikely that D'Eon was present at the wedding, which took place in Paris. While he was in the capital Louis XV., Tercier, and Jeannel, diredor of the postal service, were endeavouring by means of

The Chevalier D^Eon. 89

the Cabinet Noir to secure possession of the despatches of Butezeff, the Russian agent in France; for there were rumours of Russian treachery afloat, and these would seem to have originated with D'Eon.

The young man was now about to be taken fully into the royal confidence. L'Hdpital knew nothing of the secret diplomacy, and, as Douglas, who had hitherto had charge of all the confi- dential communications in Russia, was about to return to France, D'Eon was chosen as his successor. He already had considerable know- ledge of the matter, having worked for a long time under Douglas, and was indeed the best man for the post — "The Sieur d'Eon must not communicate to anyone what he knows of the secret," wrote the Well-Beloved to Tercier; " if necessary he will correspond with you; " and subsequently he said: " I approve of your giving the Sieur d*Eon a cipher, if he has not already left." ^

This cipher was to serve for the private correspondence between Louis XV. and the Czarina, the negotiations for which had origi- nally been confided to Douglas, by whom, however, nothing had been accomplished in the matter. D'Eon now received from Tercier a copy of Montesquieu's "Esprit des Lois," bound in calf with end-papers of the familiar marble pattern. Between the boards, which were double, the cipher was inserted, together

^ Boutaric, i. 86, 224. Archives Nationales, K. 157.

90 The Chevalier D^Eon.

with a letter from Tercier to WoronzofF, renew- ing the King's proposals.*

D'Eon began his preparations for departure wondering what answer he was to give to the offers which had been made to Conti. The King seemingly could not come to a decision. At last, however, he wrote to Tercier: " When I am morally satisfied that the Empress of Russia really destines the Prince de Conti for the command of her armies and for Courland, I will give all the authority and permissions I may be asked for. Until then I am not at all disposed to do so, for fear of taking a false step which might do us more harm than good." Conti was therefore obliged to let D'Eon start off with a vague reply, the only efFedt of which could be the rupture of the negotiations. At Strasburg, however, a secret order overtook the young diplomatist, with the result that he re-

• Writing to Count de Vcrgenncs in May, 1776, D'Eon

sajrs that the book in question had been given him at the time of his ^ first journeys {sic) to Russia," that he might take there secret letters from Louis XV. to the Czarina, so that she and her confidant, Grand Chancellor WoronzoiF (WoronzofF did not become Grand Chancellor till 1758), might correspond with his Majesty and M. Tercier without the knowledge of the ministers and ambassadors. Tercier tells us that in February, 1758, he received word from WoronzoiF that the Czarina approved of the plan that she should communicate with Louis XV. in cipher, and was ready to adopt it. Prior to that date, a few private autograph letters had passed between the two sovereigns in various im* portant circumstances, notably during La Chetardie's first embassy, but there certainly had been no regular cipher correspondence.

The Chevalier UEon. 91

mained in the city for five days, on the last of which he was joined by a courier who had ridden in hot haste dire^ from the chiteau de risle-Adam. Conti, who had renewed his efforts to win the King's support, was now hopeful of a favourable result, and informed D'Eon that on arriving at St. Petersburg he would find a letter in figurative language awaiting him, which would acquaint him ex- adly with what he was to do. If the letter should contain this sentence, '* You can start in accordance with your instrudions,** he was to substitute for Conti's letter, which he carried with him, a formal acceptance of Courland and the military command; for the phrase in ques- tion would imply that Louis XV. gave his consent. But if the letter said " Do not start," he was to abstain from all further negotiations and let the affair drop.^

When D'Eon reached St. Petersburg his first question was whether a letter had come for him, but there was none. Indeed, he never received the decisive communication that had been promised him. As for Conti, unable to overcome Louis XV.'s resistance, or to draw him out of his disdainfiil silence, he made up his mind to meddle no more with the secret diplomacy, which, originally started to further his own views on Poland, now embraced a variety of matters in which he took no personal interest. Some weeks after D'Eon's departure,

^ Archives des Aflaires Etrangeres — Vandal, p. 308.

92 The Chevalier D^Eon.

therefore, when Tercier was with the Court at Fontainebleau, he received a visit from Monin, the Prince's private secretary, who brought him all the secret papers and despatches which had remained in Conti's possession, together with a letter announcing the Prince's resignation of the fun&ions of " pocket vizier." For a tim^ the direction of the secret diplomacy remained in Tercier's hands, but ultimately it passed to the volcanic Count de Broglie, the same whose acquaintance D'Eon had made when passing through Vienna,

On reaching St. Petersburg the young diplomatist was received most cordially by the Marquis de THdpital, to whom some time previously the Abb^ de Bernis had written: " I send you, my dear ambassador, our dear little D'Eon, with whom I hope you will be well pleased. ... His fortune lies in his hands and in yours.*' The Marquis, who, after a long and honourable career in the army and diplomacy, had grown gouty as well as indolent, was quite disposed to assist his secretary in making his way, and in proof thereof he entrusted him with almost the entire work of the embassy.

During D'Eon's absence one or two events of importance had happened. Sir Charles Hanbury Williams had been recalled at the instance of the Czarina, owing to his intrigues with the Grand-Duchess Catherine, who, for his benefit, it is said, was wont to sit up at

The Chevalier D'Eon. 93

nights translating from Russian into French all such decisions of the Supreme Council as were favourable to France. Early in 1757 Williams had written to the Earl of Holder- ness lamenting that people at St. Petersburg looked upon him ^' more as a Prussian spy than as an English ambassador/' and after complain- ing of the ill offices of the French and Austrian representatives, he had added: ^' Your Lordship may depend upon it from various and good intelligence, that our enemies at this Court will do their utmost with the Empress to draw me into some difficulties which may end in my being sent away from hence." * These antici- pations had been fulfilled; but Williams had been replaced at St. Petersburg by an equally skilful and a more prudent diplomatist, Mr. Keithy who soon made his influence felt with the young Court.

With regard to the war at this juncture, the 80,000 men, who, according to the Czarina's promises, were to z&. in concert with France and Austria against Frederick the Great, had spread themselves over Poland, which, neutral territory though it was, they were pillaging en rigle. The commander of this horde of undisciplined Tartars, Cossacks, and moujiks^ more or less hastily drafted into the ranks, the lazy, luxurious, and libidinous Marshal Apraxin, evinced no desire to come to close

• Lord Mahon's " History of England," vol. iv., Appendix.

94 7^^ Chevalier D'Eon.

quarters with the Prussians, and many people complained of his inadivity.

Not so the Czarina, however. If we glance at L'Hopitars despatches to his Court, in the composition of which D*Eon with his literary propensities had no doubt an important share, we see Elizabeth careless as to her army, but so distraded by the approach of old age — she is now eight-and-forty — that she spends entire days at her toilet-table, striving to repair the irreparable outrages of time; we see her also shutting herself up for hours in mysterious seclusion with WoronzofF and SchouvaloflF; we see her summoning with unquenchable lust the most stalwart of her guards to the imperial bed; we see her suddenly ordering gorgeous fStes, gathering together her cortege of four hundred ladies and maids of honour, and, seized with a sudden frenzy, dancing until she drops upon the floor of the marble hall which twelve hundred candles brightly illuminate. We also see her alternately in fits of hysteria and fits of piety, praying for hours at a time, on her knees, before the icon of her favourite saint. And at night she does not sleep, but paces her apartment with a feverish step, dreading lest the Grand-Duchess Catherine should appear at the head of the Preobrajensky guards and bear her away to doom, even as she herself long ago bore oflf Anna Leopoldovna and the baby Czar.

Catherine and, indeed, that dolt, her husband.

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Peter, are conspiring. They pocket money right and left; they take Austrian gold, and are willing to take French gold, but they are not inclined to render France and Austria any services. If Apraxin delays his onward march, it is in obedience to their orders. The Poles are bitterly complaining of the excesses of the Russian troops; Count de Broglie, secretly supported by Louis XV., urges them to open resistance against Russia, and intrigues for the recall of Poniatowski, Polish minister at St. Petersburg, who, seeking his political inspira- tions in the arms of Catherine, is entirely devoted to Russian interests. And whilst Broglie makes every effort to obtain the young libertine's recall, L'Hdpital and D'Eon are secretly instrufted to win his favour, together with that of his mistress and her husband. They are told to fawn upon the ignoble trio, to coax them, bribe them, do anything in fad to gain them over to the French cause.

But the influence of BestuchefF and Mr. Keith is paramount with Catherine and Peter, who no longer content themselves with delay- ing Apraxin's operations. In obedience to their instructions^ after gaining the battle of Gross-JagersdorfF the Russian troops take no part in the campaign; they remain mere spectators of the war, whilst their Austrian allies are hard pressed in Silesia, and France — on Nov. 5, 1757 — sustains the bitter humilia- tion of Rosbach. And the Russians are still

96 Ihe Chevalier D'Eon,

looking on when a month later Frederick the Great crushes Charles of Lorraine at Leuthen, and hurls him and Daun back into Moravia. Not even then will Apraxin intervene; on the contrary, he sounds a retreat, and takes up his winter quarters in Courland.

At this Elizabeth — remorseful possibly that her allies should have suffered so many reverses through the fault in a great measure of Russian inadtivity — rouses herself from her torpor, for- sakes the toilet-table and the dance, and de- spatches Fermor to replace Apraxin. And whilst the latter, now formally accused of treachery, is being sent a prisoner to St. Petersburg, the Muscovite troops are once more ordered across the Niemen. The icy north wind is now blowing over Europe, the rivers are frozen, a snowy pall has spread over the ground; but no matter, for the first time possibly in the annals of eighteenth century warfare, there is to be a winter campaign — no cosy quarters, with blazing logs and vodka in plenty for the Muscovite soldiers, but the march and the battle — all the hardships and dangers of war.

Apraxin, however, is not the only culprit. His papers, which have been seized, are found to contain crushing proofs of treason on the part of BestuchefF, together with a most com- promising letter from Catherine. On February 25, 1758, the Chancellor is arrested,^ and the

^ Mr. Keith, who was away 71 Warsaw at the time, wrote

The Chevalier D'Eon. 97

Grand-Duchess gives herself up for lost. To whom can she turn for help? A few days later a Frenchman named Rimbert comes to L'Hdpital and D*Eon — we say D'Eon advisedly, for it is on record, proved by the Marquis's own letters and despatches, that he did nothing without consulting his young secretary — and informs them that Catherine is repentant, and implores the assistance and advice of the French ambassador. At this juncture L'Hdpital and D'Eon blundered — they sacrificed the future for the present. Afraid of offending Elizabeth, they negleded this opportunity to enchain Catherine by bonds of interest, if not of grati- tude, and did nothing whatever in her favour. On the contrary, L'Hdpital went to WoronzofF and told him how the Grand-Duchess had appealed to him.

In the end, so far as Catherine and Peter were concerned, the storm blew over. The

to the Earl of Holderness that profiting by his absence L'Hopital had been to Woronzoff and threatened to break his neck if he did not join him in making ^* a last push ^ against Bestucheff; and that the Vice-Chancellor, intimidated by this menace, had entered into his proposals and set to work with his partv to blacken BestuchefPs condud to the Empress. "To give the finishing stroke," says Keith, "the French ambassador took the opportunity of the Court-day to come up to the Empress, and after having kissed her hand, pre- tending to admire the stuff of her gown, whispered in her ear that there was a person at Court very dangerous both to her Majesty's person and government, and that he thought himself obkged in duty to tell her that the great Chancefior BestuchefF was the man.**-— Mahon, voL tv., Appendix.

H

98 The Chevalier D'Eon.

former withdrew from Court for a period of three months, and lost her favourite, Ponia- towski, who was sent back to Warsaw. As for Apraxin, he was found dead in the coach in which he was being brought to St. Petersburg; whilst BestuchefF, convidled of high treason, had all his property confiscated, and was banished, some accounts say to Siberia, and others to one of his estates. At all events, like his predecessors, Biren, Munich, and Ostermann, he took the road to exile, and WoronzofF, promoted to the dignity of Grand Chancellor, reigned in his stead. The Grand- Duke Peter meanwhile was consoling himself by providing his guards with a military band. Meeting L*H6pital a few days after the minis- terial revolution, he said to him: " What a pity it is that my old friend La Ch6tardie is dead! How happy he would have been to have heard of BestuchefFs fate! "

D'Eon himself must have been well pleased at all this, especially as BestuchefF's papers revealed that the Chancellor had plotted the murder of D'Eon and Douglas in the earlier days of the latter*s mission. Now that the obnoxious statesman had fallen, there seemed to be no obstacle to that private cipher corre- spondence between the Czarina and the Well- Beloved, which was destined to pass through D'Eon's hands. The two sovereigns did not, however, write to one another personally. Louis XV. acquainted Tercier with what he

The Chevalier D'Eon. 99

wished to say, and Elizabeth diiftated her letters to WoronzofF, or to her secretary, AlsuviefF, who, curiously enough, was in English pay,^ so that, unknown to D'Eon, Elizabeth, and Louis XV., many of the confidential communications may have found their way to the Court of St. James. It should be added that there was nothing very important in these cipher letters. The Well-Beloved was afraid of compromising himself, and though it was easy for him to counsel the Empress on political matters through the private channel which had been opened up, he negledled to do so. Indeed, the inter- course between the two sovereigns assumed the charaifter of a bourgeoise intimacy» rather than of a political alliance based on common views, sympathies, and interests.

At one time Elizabeth complained to the King of her bad health, and Louis gallantly sent her a French dodtor of high repute; on another occasion she appealed to him for a loan of five million roubles, for the imperial ex- chequer was empty; but from a pecuniary point of view the Well-Beloved was almost as badly off as herself, and he was quite unable to oblige her with the trifle she solicited. At another

' Pitt wrote to Keith instruding him to gain AlsuviefPs support, and Keith replied, relating how he had given AIsu- vieff five hundred ducats in gold as part of die pension promised by Williams, at the same time telling him that he had orders to pay the pension regularly as the instalments should iaQ due. — -jMahon, vol. iv., Appendix.

loo The Chevalier D'Eon.

time she complained of being bored to death, and begged the King to send her the first aftor and adtress of the Comedie Fran9aise, Lekain and La Clairon. This last matter became quite an affair of state, and was discussed not only in the private correspondence, but also in the official despatches; and Cardinal de Bernis is found gravely writing to L'H6pital that the artistes in question " belong to the King, who would be very pleased to lend them to the Czarina; but they also belong to the public, being artistes of the Comedie Franfaise, of which they are the mainstay. The pleasures of Paris deserve the attention of the govern- ment, and the withdrawal of these adors would be the ruin of the Comedie Fran9aise. How- ever, if any artistes can be found among the provincial companies worthy of amusing the Empress, we will do everything possible to send them to St. Petersburg, as much to oblige her Majesty as to diffuse abroad a taste for the French stage." *

Another question discussed, both in the private and official correspondence, was a pro- posal on the Czarina's part that Louis XV. should become godfather to a child of which the Grand-Duchess Catherine was enceinte. Louis objected, however, that as a Catholic he could not stand sponsor to an infant who would be brought up in the schismatical Greek faith.

«

^ Archives des AiEures Etrang^es. Bernis to L'Hopital, June 24, 1758.

The Chevalier D^Eon. loi

So the matter fell through, but Elizabeth appears to have been deeply hurt by the King's reftisal. When the child was born, she gave it no godfather^ but adted as sole sponsor.

During the first six months of 1758 L'Hdpital and D^Eon were occupied with a variety of negotiations,^ whilst the war progressed with divers results on either side. Fermor, quite as lazy and as incapable as Apraxin, did but little with the Russian troops, and after the bloody battle of Zorndorf, when his loss ex- ceeded 20,000 men, he retreated beyond the Vistula. France, moreover, met with so many disasters by sea and land, both in Europe and in her colonies, that Bernis at last became anxious for peace, and sounded WoronzofF as to his own views. Throughout the autumn everything seemed to presage a cessation of hostilities, but Madame de Pompadour still hoped to crush Prussia, and in the result, towards the close of the year, Bernis resigned his office and was exiled from Court; his suc- cessor being the celebrated Duke de Choiseul, " the man and the minister of his age," who, as Count de Choiseul-Stainville, had previously represented France at Vienna, where he had been succeeded by his cousin, Choiseul-Praslin.

' In this same year D'Eon published in Paris a book in two volumes, on ^^ Taxation among the Ancients and the French." It is not unlikely that he had written it some time previously, and had arranged for its issue during his recent trip to France. Some think it was really his &ther^ work.

102 Hie Chevalier D'Eon.

Soon after this change L'H6pital wa3 in- strufted to inform WoronzofF that, far from desiring peace, France was bent on continuing the war. Louis XV. and Maria Theresa had signed a fresh treaty clearly stipulating their respe6tive duties as allies, and in this compadt Elizabeth was asked to join. L'H6pital and D*Eon. were negotiating the matter when an incident of some importance to the latter oc- curred in Paris: Tercier lost his position as chief clerk at the Foreign Office.

Tercier, it may be mentioned, was a man of much culture. He was both a member of the " Academic des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres," and, like D*Eon, a royal literary censor. In the latter capacity he had been called upon to examine the manuscript of Helvetius's famous book " De TEsprit,** and, in an unguarded moment, overwhelmed as he was with work, having not only to condu£t Louis XV.'s secret diplomacy, but also to assist Jeannel, director ot the postal service, in managing the Cabinet Noir, besides attending to his official duties^ he had authorized the publication of Helvetius*s book^ the suppression of which was shortly afterwards decreed. Choiseul, who suspe6ted the existence of the secret diplomacy, profited by this to dismiss Tercier, who fell from a post worth 80,000 livres a year, and had to content himself with various pensions, amounting alto- gether to less than a quarter of that amount.

A letter written by the King to Tercier

The Chevalier D^Eon. 103

about this time ^ relieved him from any further duties with regard to the Cabinet Noir, but instrudted him to continue direding the secret diplomatic service. Having left the ministry, however, it was difficult for him to gain access to the official despatches, and various arrange- ments had to be made in order to supply him with copies of them. The Count de Broglie having been succeeded at Warsaw by the Marquis de Paulmy, had left with the latter a certain Durand, who was in the King's secret, and through Durand most of the official and secret despatches to and from the northern and eastern Courts now passed, in order that he might copy them for Tercier, with the result that months often elapsed before they reached their destinations, and that both the official and secret services became virtually disorganized. Such, however, were the intricate, tortuous, and disastrous courses sandtioned by Louis XV. to gratify his personal whims.

Early in 1759, whilst the Russians, under Prince SoltykofF, who had succeeded Fermor, were marching towards the Oder, L*H6pital and D*Eon received instrudions from Choiseul, who was now planning a grand invasion of England under Soubise, to suggest to WoronzofF that the Russians should make themselves masters of Stettin, and there embark on board a Swedish fleet which would be in readiness to

^ Archives Nationalcs, K. 157.

I04 The Chevalier D^Eon.

convey them to Scotland.* Russia, however, viras unwilling to attack England openly, and in the summer the English admirals destroyed all Choiseul's plans of invasion by annihilating the French Mediterranean squadron off Lagos, blockading Brest, bombarding Le Hivre, and burning the flat-bottomed boats intended for the conveyance of Soubise's forces to our shores. Thereupon peaceful inclinations arose in the French minister's breast, and when WoronzofF suggested that Russia should come forward as a mediator between France and England, he vir- tually accepted the proposal, but intimated that it would be as well for Russia to mediate first of all between Prussia and Austria. L'H6pital was instructed to propose this course, and maybe the Seven Years* War would at this period have come to a close, but for D'Eon.

The young secretary of legation governed his superior, and now seemed at the height of his fortune. He had accomplished the difficult feat of winning his ambassador's esteem and afFe6tion, whilst a6ting, unknown to him and in spite of him, as the intermediary in a secret correspondence between the King and the Czarina. The indolent L'Hdpital swore by D'Eon, and was ever assuring him of his pro- tection. Moreover, D'Eon was so high in the favour of the Czarina and her Chancellor, that already in the previous year they had proposed

' Affaires Etrangeres— Despatch from Choiseul, Jan. 9, '759-

The Chevalier D'Eon. 105

to him to enter the imperial service. This offer he had courteously but firmly declined. He wrote to Bernis that ever since he had been in Russia '^ his maxim had been to keep his back turned on Siberia; " whilst to Tercier he said, " I will never leave the service of France for all the Emperors and Empresses in the world. I prefer to live from hand to mouth in France to being in the enjoyment of an income of 1 00,000 livres in fear and bondage.'* The sentiments he expressed met with hearty approval at Versailles; and Bernis replied to him, " Continue to serve his Majesty with the same zeal that you have hitherto displayed. It will at all times be a pleasure to me to bring your services, labours, and abilities to the ^^ivourable notice of the King." *

The private letters which D*Eon frequently received from Tercier kept him well acquainted with the secret views of Louis XV., and accor- dingly, when Choiseul's instructions with re- gard to Russian mediation reached L'Hdpital, the young secretary perceived that by following them his superior would surely incur the dis- pleasure of the King. Fearing to increase the prestige of Russia by supplying her with the opportunity for a diplomatic success — ^for she would assuredly have played the leading r6k in the negotiations — Louis XV. would indeed have preferred to treat direft with England.

^ ^Lettres, Memoires, et N^gociations du Chevalier D'Eon."

io6 The Chevalier D^Eon.

D*Eon therefore prevailed on L'Hdpital to pay no attention to the minister's orders, pressing though they were. *

Choiseul wondered at L'H6pitars inactivity, complained, swore, begged, hinted that he would get him created a duke, but all in vain. L'Hdpital, backed up by D'Eon, would not move. Choiseul did not care to dismiss him outright, though the Well-Beloved himself declared that he found the Marquis " very dear." From the "Livre Rouge" it appears that between December, 1756, and September, 1758, L'Hdpital had received no less than 1,683,000 livres for "extraordinary expenses" alone; but much of this money no doubt had found its way into the pockets of WoronzofF,^ Catherine, Peter, Poniatowski, and others. At last, in default of dismissing the Marquis, Choiseul resolved to send him an energetic coadjutor, and selefted for the purpose the Baron de Breteuil, a handsome young man of seven-and-twenty, who, so Choiseul planned it, was to make love to the Grand- Duchess Catherine, now pining for her absent favourite Poniatowski, and win her over to the French interest. Unfortunately, however, for Choiseul, Breteuil had but recently married, and was very much attached to his wife; and, as the minister forgot to tell him not to take her with

• A memorandum in the Archives des Af&ires Etrangeres

shows that LiOuis XV. "lent** Woronzoff 150,000 crowns to keep him in his interests.

The Chevalier D'Ran. 107

htm to Russia, this fine plan — so chara£teristic of French eighteenth century diplomacy— came to nothing whatever.

Whilst Breteuil was preparing to set out, D'Eon applied for permission to return to France; He was not only longing for home, but was suffering from scurvy and an affe£tion of the eyes. Louis XV., however, and more especially Tercier and the Count de Broglie, the latter of whom, since his return from Warsaw, had become one of the directors of the secret diplomacy^ were not disposed to dispense with the young secretary's services at St. Petersburg. ChoiseuPs appointment of the Baron de Breteuil was in some measure directed against them, and they resolved to circumvent the minister by taking the Baron into their confidence. Breteuil received the commands of Louis XV. to obey whatever orders might be given him by Tercier and Broglie, to whom he was to communicate all his official instru6tions and despatches, and he was further informed that on his arrival at St. Petersburg D'Eon would place himself at his disposal.

Before starting, moreover, the Baron received along memoir containing his secret instru6tions, in one passage of which Louis XV. paid a formal tribute to D'Eon's services.^ Referring

^ Archives des Afiaires Etrangeres. This curious and important document, first discovered by M. Vandal, is in Tercier's handwriting.

io8 The Chevalier D^Eon^

to Choiseul's views respecting Russian media- tion, he remarked, " It is a matter for congra- tulation that the Marquis de THdpital, yielding in this instance to the prudent advice of the Sieur d*Eon, allowed the opportunity to slip which he had been so eagerly enjoined to seize/' The royal orders to Breteuil were as follows: No matter how he might be instructed by Choiseul, he was, first, to watch over the interests of Poland, and to endeavour, if pos- sible, to secure the Polish crown for Prince Xavier of Saxony; in any event he was to obtain from the Czarina full liberty for the Poles to choose their own sovereign; he was to combat under all circumstances the Russian demands for a portion of Prussian territory, and to suggest, in lieu of territorial aggrandise- ment, that Russia should content herself with a pecuniary indemnity payable either by Prussia or England; and especially, if circumstances allowed it, he was to ^^ retard the military operations of the Russians ^ so that they might not set too high a price upon their services and successes, but that his Majesty might by his own armies obtain the leading place in the negotiations for a peace." *

To secure, therefore, a puerile satisfaction for his personal vanity, the Well-Beloved was willing to delay the Russian movements, and

^ That British diplomatists suspeded this is shown by a letter from Lord Stormont to Holderness, dated Warsaw, Aug. 23, 1 759. — Mahon, vol. iv., Appendix.

The Chevalier D^Eon. 109

place his ally, Maria Theresa, in jeopardy. She had formally promised the greater part of the Austrian Netherlands to his son-in-law, the Infante Don Philip, and to Louis himself she was prepared to cede Mons, Ypres, Furnes, Ostend, Nieuport, Beaumont, and Chimay in Flanders, but for all these his most Christian Majesty cared little. His vanity was of far more consequence. On the other hand, it must be admitted that he still took a keen interest in the affairs of Poland, which country he was anxious to save alike from Russian and Austrian annexation. He declared, indeed, in his secret instrudtions to Breteuil, that if he had established a private correspondence with the Czarina, it was solely to keep a watch on her in the interest of Poland, and to save that country " from all that might harm it, both in the present and the future." History charges Louis XV. with having utterly abandoned the Poles, but these secret documents peremptorily establish that he was ever mindful of them. Unfortunately, however, he had not the courage to enforce officially the policy which he secretly pursued, otherwise the partition of Poland might have been long delayed, if not averted.

Just before Breteuil set out from Paris the combinations devised by Broglie and Tercier with regard to Poland were almost wrecked by the ever-wary Choiseul, who removed their secret agent Durand from Warsaw. They were able, however, to replace Durand by

VI.

September, 1760 — March, 1763.

O'Eon joins the Army, but cannot escape from Diplomacy — He receives the Baptism of Fire — The Battle of Kirch Denlccrn or Villinghausen — D'Eon entrusted with a perilous Operation — His Feud with Count dc Guerchy — He is wounded at Ultrop — His Prowess at Einbeck and Osterwicic — Exile of the Broglies — D'Eon hard-up — He becomes First Secretary to the Duke dc Nivernais — The Diplomatic Sylph — D'Eon and Nivernais pro- ceed to England — The rascally Innkeeper at Canterbury — The Negotiations for the Peace of Paris — An English Ultimatum — D'Eon'a trick on Mr. Under-Secretary Wood — He conveys the Ratifications to France, and becomes the Chevalier D'Eon.

EON had scarcely reached Paris when he fell ill with the small- pox, and some months elapsed before he was fit for any employ- ment. After his recovery, in December, 1760, Louis XV. granted him a life pension of 2,000 livres, and in the following February the young fellow applied for permission to join the army opposed to the Hanoverian, English, and Prussian forces under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick in Ger-

77)6 Chevalier D'Eon. 113

many. Whilst in Russia D'Eon had been promoted from the rank of lieutenant to that of captain of dragoons, without, however, as yet having seen any service. He now exchanged from the Colonel-general to the D'Autichamp regiment, and was appointed aide-de-camp to the Marshal and the Count de Broglie. The King particularly approved of his being placed on the staff of these officers, the latter of whom, whilst ading as ^* mar^chal g^n^ral des logis " to his brother, was also condu£ling the secret diplomatic service, corresponding with Paris, Warsaw, Stockholm, Constantinople, and St. Petersburg amid all the bustle, excitement, and danger of military operations.

Never before had the management of the secret service been so complicated and difficult an affair. Despatches and memoirs, abstracts and letters, all, as it happened, dealing with somewhat trivial matters, were ever on the wing. They pursued Count de Broglie whither- soever the movements of the army called him. They reached him whilst he was at the outposts, or with the rearguard, or whilst he was quartered in some fortified place on the Lahn or the Eder; and of an evening while he sat in his tent, after giving his orders for the movements of the morrow, he would read all these secret communications and pen his an- swers, which he forwarded to the ever-diligent Tercier that they might be laid before the King, prior to journeying once more across

I

1 14 The Chevalier D^Eon.

Europe to Scandinavia, Muscovy, Turkey, or Poland, as the case might be.

Such were the extraordinary courses adopted by the Well-Beloved, who, when he authorized D'Eon to join the Broglies, intended that the young captain should assist the Count with his secret despatches. And thus D'Eon, who longed for the dashing life of the bold dragoon, could not escape from diplomacy even on join- ing the army.

Although the campaign of 1 760 had resulted to the advantage of Frederick the Great, his losses in men had been prodigious, and re- cruiting being difficult and his coffers empty he looked forward to the sequel with no little doubt and anxiety. However, in February, 1 76 1, Prince Ferdinand drove the French from their quarters near Cassel, and soon afterwards the Prussian general Sybourg, after effedting a junction with the Hanoverian commander Sporken, took some 3,000 French prisoners. In March, about the time when D'Eon was able to report himself, the French troops in Germany were divided into two corps, which it had been intended should operate separately — the larger corps, under the Marshal Prince de Soubise, in Westphalia, and the smaller one, under the Marshal Duke de Broglie, in Hesse. This plan, devised by Choiseul and La Pompa- dour, was considered impracticable, however, by both marshals, who, after a period of in- activity following upon the defeat of the here-

The Chevalier D^Eon. 1 1 5

ditaiy Prince of Brunswick at Stangerode and the raising of the siege of Cassel, resolved to effe6t a junftion. Whilst Soubise pushed for- ward from the Rhine, Broglie, whom D'Eon ac- companied^ advanced from Cassel,and on his way fell in with a division commanded by General Sporken, from whom, after a sharp engagement, he took 800 prisoners and nineteen pieces or cannon. It was on this occasion presumably that D'Eon received the " baptism of fire."

Meeting at last, the French marshals found the Anglo-Hanoverian forces under Prince Ferdinand drawn up in a strong position between the Aest and the Lippe, near the vil- lage of Kirch-Denkern. Water prote6ted them in front, and rugged, bushy ground covered one of their flanks. The Marquis of Granby com- manded the left wing, whilst the centre was under the orders of General Conway. At first it was arranged between Broglie and Soubise that they should give battle on the morning of July 16, but on the previous evening Broglie found it expedient to assail Lord Granby's wing, with the result that after a hard fight he secured for a time the important position of Villing- hausen. Anticipating, however, that Prince Ferdinand would make every eflPbrt to recover the lost ground, he sent an aide-de-camp to Soubise asking for immediate reinforcements, and begging that a preconcerted diversion to- wards Scheidingen might be made at once, in- stead of being deferred till the morrow.

ii6 The Chevalier D^Eon.

However, Soubise was jealous of his colleague, and not only failed to supply the reinforcements he was asked for, but so delayed his own move- ments that Broglie was driven out of Villing- hausen with great slaughter. It was now impossible to avert a defeat, and although at an early hour on the following morning both of the French marshals, with nearly the whole mass of their forces, repeated the attack, again beginning with Lord Granby*s posts, they were unable to achieve their purpose. After a mur- derous fire of five hours* duration, they fell back on all points, leaving their wounded and several of their guns behind them.

Bitter recriminations then ensued between Broglie and Soubise — indeed, during several months this engagement furnished a subjeft of controversy for all Europe — and D'Eon, who warmly espoused the cause of his own com- mander, repeatedly asserted that the reverse was entirely due to Soubise's conduft. This asser- tion was possibly of too sweeping a character, but most English, French, and German historians admit that if Soubise had displayed any alacrity in supporting Broglie on the evening of the 1 5th, the Anglo-Hanoverian army might have been unable to withstand the onslaught.

We next hear of D*Eon with the French force that crossed the Weser near H5xter on August 19, when he received orders to convey a large quantity of powder and other stores across the river — a somewhat perilous operation.

The Chevalier D^Eon. 117

since it had to be accomplished under the fire of the enemy's guns. Once across the stream, the young captain was to hand to Lieutenant- General Count de Guerchy Broglie*s written instructions for the distributinn of 400,000 cartridges among the infantry, and this order D'Eon gave to Guerchy, but the latter had no sooner received it than for some inconceivable reason he galloped away, shouting: " If you have a supply of ammunition, you have merely to convey it to a park of artillery which you will find half a league from here." A warm altercation then arose between the two officers, with the result that D*Eon was left to carry out Broglie's orders according to his own judgment. With the assistance of some artillery officers who volunteered their services, he proceeded to distribute the cartridges — the enemy diredting their fire upon the party the whole time.

This is the first recorded occasion on which D'Eon came in conta6t with Count de Guer- chy, with whom he was remotely connedled by past-century matrimonial alliances, and whose ancestral property was situated near the estate of Beaumont which had belonged to D*Eon's father. Later on D*Eon and Guerchv will be found involved in a bitter feud, which possibly may have taken its origin in the military incident we have just recorded.

Soon after the passage of the Weser, D'Eon took part in a reconnaissance and combat at Ultrop, where he was wounded both in the

ii8 The Chevalier UEon.

head and the thigh, and then he is lost sight of until the adtion at Einbeck, in November, when he is said to have tried conclusions with the Marquis of Granby's gallant Highlanders. We are told, indeed, that the young captain charged the clansmen at the head of the Champagne Grenadiers and a body of Swiss, and pursued them from a mountain gorge in which they were established to the English camp; ^ but it will be satisfadtory to the British reader to learn — on the authority of a despatch from Count de Broglie to his brother the Marshal — ^that D'Eon was merely sent to with- draw the Grenadiers and the Swiss, as the French, already worsted by the Highlanders, had determined to retreat!

Later on, at Osterwiek, when M. de Saint Vidtor had been ordered to dislodge some six or seven hundred Franconian Prussians who intercepted communications with Prince Xavier of Saxony, then besieging Wolfenbiittel, he entrusted this task to a party of volunteers, with a score of hussars, and some eighty dragoons of the Autichamp and La Ferronaye regiments. D'Eon, who was serving as second captain of the Autichamp troop, took part in the charge, which, according to Marshal de Broglie, was accomplished " with such efFedl and determina- tion that the Prussian battalion was thoroughly routed, and every man of it taken prisoner.

^ GsuUardet, p. 79.

The Chevalier D^Eon. 1 1 9

If we may believe another account/ D'Eon, not content with his share in this exploit, galloped on to the camp of Prince Xavier, to whom he handed Broglie's orders to assault Wolfenbiittel, which shortly afterwards surrendered.

It was now late in the year, and the cam- paign was drawing to a close. For months past Broglie and Soubise had been angrily accusing each other in memorials and despatches to the Court of Versailles, and the former ultimately requested permission to return to France. He arrived in Paris early in 1762, accompanied by his brother and D Eon, who was sorely vexed at having to leave the army, though by way of consolation he carried in his pocket a highly flattering certificate of his prowess signed by both the Marshal and the Count. The Marshal, on repairing to Marly, was received with marked displeasure by the Well-Beloved. Not at all abashed, however, Broglie, well aware that, high as Soubise might stand in La Pompadour's favour, he alone pos- sessed the confidence of the army and the nation, handed Choiseul a lengthy memorial, which fully discussed every incident of the defeat at Villinghausen, and contended that the responsibility of that reverse rested with Soubise and those who had divided the French army into two corps.

This document was indeed a deliberate attack on Choiseul and La Pompadour, who

^ Gaillardet, p. 79.

120 The Chevalier UEon.

were by no means disposed to let it pass un- noticed, and shortly afterwards both Marshal and Count de Broglie were summarily exiled to their estates in Normandy and Saintonge. On the same evening "Tancrede" was per- formed at the Com^die Fran9aise, and when La Clairon recited the lines:

^^ Tancrede est malheureux, on Pexile, on Poutrage; C'est le sort des heros d'etre persecutes." ^

the speftators, rising to their feet in their enthusiasm, shouted '^Broglie! Broglie! " and gave vent to tumultuous applause.

However, whilst exiling the Marshal and his brother in deference to the wishes of his minister and his mistress, Louis XV. realized that he could not dispense with the assistance of his " pocket vizier/' So Count de Broglie still re- tained the management of the secret diplomacy, all the despatches conned:ed with which were now sent to him at his chiteau of RufFec.

Just about this time D'Eon had reason for alarm. He had seen enough of Russia, and dreaded returning thither. But the Czarina Elizabeth having died, and Peter HL after a brief reign having been overthrown by his wife Catherine, and subsequently strangled^ possibly at her instigation, by the gigantic Alexis OrlofF, her favourite's brother, both Choiseul and Count de Broglie urged that D'Eon

^ " Tancred is unfortuniate, exiled, and outraged^; 'ds the fiite of heroes to be persecuted.**

I

The Chevalier D^Eon. 121

should be sent back to St. Petersburg. Ulti- mately, however, the plan was abandoned, and to console D'Eon for the loss of an appointment which he by no means desired, Louis XV. granted him a gratuity of 3,000 livres.

This little sum was very acceptable, no doubt; for D'Eon, despite all his pensions on paper, was still as poor as ever. He was being pressed for repayment of the loan which he had been obliged to raise when he first went to Russia, and ministers only hummed and ha'd, and referred him to their predecessors, many of them dead and buried, when he suggested that this loan ought to be paid by the State. Then, too, his war pay was in arrear, so that he must have had a difficulty even in supporting himself.

Remaining for a time without employment, he was desirous of returning to his military duties, but this was not to be. The war, inasmuch as it concerned France and Spain on the one hand, and England on the other, was now drawing to a close. Already, in July, 1 76 1, Mr. Stanley had been sent to Paris, and Count de Bussy had come over to London, when preliminaries having been mutually pro- posed and examined the demands of France were rejeded as inadmissible. In the midst of it all, however, came the signing of the famous Family Compadt between France and Spain, followed by the resignation of Pitt and the accession to power of Lord Bute, who was opposed to the continuation of hostilities. In

T22 The Chevalier D'Eon.

the summer of 1762, after contending for some months, successfully, but despite himself, against the Bourbon alliance, Bute made overtures of peace to Versailles through the neutral Court of Sardinia, whose proposals were eagerly en- tertained by Choiseul. Great Britain and France thereupon appointed ambassadors, the Duke of Bedford on the one side, and the Duke de Nivemais, grand-nephew of Cardinal MazariUy and formerly French envoy at Rome, on the other; and Nivernais, as soon as nomi- nated, seleded D'Eon as his first secretary.

A grand chance now offered for the young diplomatist, who hastily made his preparations, and early in September set out from Paris with the Duke, whom he found to be as pleasant a patron as that easy - going voluptuary, the Marquis de THdpital. Physically Nivemais was a curiosity. He was so short and slight ot build that his own countrymen had nicknamed him the diplomatic sylph, and D'Eon tells us that when the ambassador and himself embarked at Calais on the '^ Princess Augusta " yacht, which was to convey them to our shores, an English sailor, standing by, remarked to one of his mates: ^^ Just look at that skinny duke! I knew him when he was a fine fat fellow. That's how we've skinned them French lords in the war! "

Somewhat later, when a leading member of the " Flag " party saw Nivernais, he jocosely declared that the French had sent the prelimi- naries of a man to sign the preliminaries of

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123

peace. Nevertheless, whatever he may have been physically, this diminutive dukelet — of whom Frederick the Great had once remarked that without glasses he could not even see him — ^was a man of good counsel and ready acumen, a great wit, a graceful versifier, and a fervent admirer of beauty.

Landing at Dover the ambassadorial party proceeded to Canterbury, where they decided they would sup and pass the night. The land- lord of the *' Red Lion,** where they put up, was of opinion apparently that however skinny poor Nivernais might be, he no doubt carried a bulky purse with him. Possibly, too, he had heard mat his excellency had given a hundred guineas as a "gratuity** to the crew of the yacht which had brought him over. At all events, the next morning he presented the ambassador with the following little bill, which even in those days of high charges was considered so remarkable that it shortly afterwards obtained a place of honour in the " Annual Register '*:

Tea, codec and chocolate Supper for self and servants Bread and beer * . . . .

Fruit

Wine and punch . . . Wax candles and charcoal Broken glass and china (!)

Lodging

Tea, cofiee and chocolate Chaise and horses for next stage

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124 ^^^ Chevalier D^Eon.

D'Eon, who had so often journeyed to and fro across Europe, was no doubt accustomed to extortionate charges, yet even he must have been amazed and possibly alarmed when he re- membered his own slender purse, at the sight of this phenomenal bill. If this were a sample of English charges, how would he manage to live? Smollett subsequently declared that Nivemais had been " charged forty pounds for what wasn't worth forty shillings." However, there was no help for it, mine host had to be paid, and, whilst he was jingling his excellency's gold, the party set out for London.

With respedt to the negotiations for the so- called treaty of Paris, reference need only be made to the matters in which D'Eon was per- sonally concerned. It was very generally be- lieved in England at the time that Bute and other prominent politicians were lavishly bribed by Nivernais and his secretary; and Lord Camden to the day of his death maintained this to be a fadl. Bute, he said to Wilberforce in 1789, had to his knowledge sunk nearly ^^300,000 in land and houses, and yet his pater- nal estate was not worth more than ^1,500 a year, and he was only a life-tenant of Wortley, which represented between jr8,ooo and ^ 1 0,000 annually. Count Viri, the Sardinian minister in London, who was largely concerned in the negotiations, was rewarded by both sides. Louis XV. sent him presents of a value of 50,000 crowns, whilst from the British Parliament he

The Chevalier D'Eon. 125

obtained a pension of j^ i ,000 for thirty years as the price of his services. As for the Duke of Bedford, when Junius six years later attacked him for having taken money at Versailles, he but repeated, in part, the universal cry that Great Britain had been sold to France and Spain .^

It had been agreed that any conquests which might be made by any of the parties, but should not be known at the time of the signing of the preliminaries, should be restored without com- pensation, and on this understanding the treaty was drafted and was almost ready when news arrived that the city of the Havannah had surrendered to the English, who by the terms of the capitulation had become possessed of all the

^ This is the style in which Junius assailed his Grace: ^ You are indeed a very considerable man. The highest rank — a splendid fortune, and a name glorious till it was yours, were sufficient to have supported you with meaner abiuties than I think you possess* . . . Your history begins to be important at that auspicious period at which you were deputed to repre- sent the Earl of [Egremont] at the Court of Versailles. . . .

Your patrons wanted an ambassador who would submit to make concessions without daring to insist upon any honour- able condition for his sovereign. Their business required a man who had as little feeline for his own dignity as for the welfare of his country, and they found him in the first rank of the nobility. BeUeisle, Goree, Guadaloupe, St. Lucia, Martinioue, the Fishery, and the Havana are glorious monu«ments of your Grace's tsdents for negotiation. My Lord, we are too well acquainted with vour pecuniary charaoer to think it possible that so manv puDlic sacrifices should have been made without some private compensations. Your condud carries with it an intmor evidence beyond all the legal proofs of a court of justice P

126 The Chevalier D'Eon.

shipping in the harbour, together with treasure and merchandise valued at three millions ster- ling, and the most fertile distridt in all Cuba. Walpole tells us that this intelligence reached Bute whilst he was entertaining Nivernais at dinner, and that the joy of the company dis- played itself in gross impoliteness towards the French ambassador, who was probably accom- panied on this occasion by his indispensable first secretary.

The terms of the treaty now required some modification, for England could only restore the Havannah to Spain on receiving suitable com- pensation. Nevertheless, Bute — ^possibly eager for his bribe — would not have insisted on the point had not the Earl of Egremont, Foreign Secretary, and George Grenville, Secretary for Home Affairs, backed up by public opinion, compelled him to take aftion. What then occurred may be related in D*Eon*s own words, which are confirmed by a despatch from Niver- nais in the Archives des Afiaires Etrangeres:

^'The negotiations had encountered an obstacle, a kind of crisis had arisen, when Mr. Robert Wood, Under-Secretary of State, called on the Duke de Nivernais to confer with him concern- ing some disputed points. He had a portfolio with him, and was indiscreet enough to tell us that it contained the Earl of Egremont's last instructions and ultimatum, which were to be sent to the Duke of Bedford at Versailles. On hearing this, the Duke de Nivernais first looked

The Chevalier D^Eon. 127

at me and then cast his eyes on the portfolio. I at once understood the meaning of this panto- mime. It would be most advantageous for our Court to know the nature of the instruflions and the terms of this fatal ultimatum. I knew that the Under-Secretary was partial to good wine and was also a hard drinker, so, in my turn, I made a sign to the Duke, who at once invited Mr. Wood to stay to dinner with him that they might discuss matters more at their ease. He wished him, he said, to taste some capita] Tonnerre wine — ^with which, by the way, I have tickled more than one foreigner's palate — and Mr. Wood, sorely tempted, swallowed the bait.

" Whilst he and the Duke were drinking their bumpers, I made off with the portfolio and extracted from it Lord Egremont's despatch, of which I had a full copy taken, which I immediately forwarded to Versailles. Our courier arrived there four-and-twenty hours before Mr. Wood's,* and when the Duke of Bedford called to broach the subject, the ministers, already apprised of the difficulties

' This was not the only misfortune Mr. Wood met with in his lifetime. He was included in the adions which Wilkes brought for false imprisonment, and after a trial of fourteen hours* duration a special iunr gave a verdid against him with

Ci,ooo damages. Lord £gremont, whom Wilkes had also

prosecuted, had meantime escaped all penalty by dying, and Lord Hali&x, a third defendant, stood on his privilege as a peer. Thus the unlucky Mr. Wood had to make amends for proceedings in which he had had little, if any, responsibility.

128 The Chevalier D'Eon.

about to be raised and of the British ambassa- dor's final instructions, were speedily able to bring him to terms."

Those terms were that Florida — then little more than waste land — should be ceded to England by Spain in exchange for the Havannah. At this many English politicians waxed indig- nant, contending rightly enough that Florida was no adequate equivalent for our valuable conquest. An outcry arose that we ought to have obtained Porto Rico as well, but it was then too late, for Florida had been formally accepted. But for D'Eon's piece of trickery, which enabled Choiseul and Grimaldi — the Spanish plenipotentiary — ^to come to a prompt decision and settle the matter before opposition could be roused in England, our flag possibly might now wave over one of the fairest islands of the Western Indies.

Nor was this the only success achieved by D'Eon in the negotiations. From documents in the Archives des Aflfaires Etrangeres it appears certain that he was largely instrumental in secur- ing to France the confirmation of those fishery rights in Newfoundland which originated with the treaty of Utrecht, and which to this day have been a source of dispute between France and Great Britain.

No doubt at the time the treaty was nego- tiated this question was looked upon as a secondary one. At all events, the sharpness which D'Eon constantly displayed seems to have done

The Chevalier D^Eon. 1 29

him no harm with English statesmen, for they treated him with what might, at first sight, seem amazing confidence. At the suggestion of Nivernais, he was, although a foreigner, en- trusted with the English ratifications for con- veyance to the Duke of Bedford in Paris. From the despatches exchanged on this occasion one might believe that in sele(fting the young French secretary as its courier the English ministry simply desired to pay him a compli- ment and furnish Louis XV. with a proof of confidence and friendship; but it is possible that D'Eon was chosen so that whilst in Paris he might settle any points yet in abeyance respecting the pecuniary payments for which Bute and others were waiting. He met with a most flattering reception in France. The Duke de Praslin, Minister for Foreign AflFairs, with whom, as Count de Choiseul-Praslin, D'Eon had long been on cordial terms, declared that the young fellow was a " unique " sub- jed, well worthy of the royal favour, and presented him with 3,000 livres fi-om the foreign service funds. Louis XV. moreover received D'Eon very graciously, and besides giving him 6,000 livres out of the privy purse, and promis- ing him a regular salary of 3,000, bestowed upon him the much-coveted cross of the order ot St. Louis. Henceforth, therefore, the Sieur D'Eon de Beaumont becomes the Chevalier of that name.

VII. March — May, 1763.

Shielded from his Creditors D'Eon basks in the Smiles of Beauty — His alleged Flirtation with Madame de Roche- (on — The obnoxious Count de Guerchy — D'Eon returns to England and becomes Minister Resident— The " battered " Duke de Nivcmais, the English Climate, and English Cookery — The Countess de Boufflcra and D'Eon at Strawberry Hill — La Condamine and his Landlady — DEon and Queen Charlotte: their mythical midnight Interviews and secret Negotiations — A Scheme for invading England — D'Eon's Share in this Afiair — His secret Correspondence with Brgglie — Louis XV. as " the Advocate " and D'Eon as the " Dragoon's Head " — Is Diplomacy an honourable Calling? — D'Eon at the Height of his Fortune.

£ distlni^ons accorded to

>'Eon now brought him into

eneral notice, and during his

ay in France he figured both

t Court and in aristocratic

jciety. He was the better able

to do this as he now had some money in his

pocket, and, what was of even greater importance,

he carried with him a royal warrant by which

his creditors were formally forbidden to sue or

molest him in any way for a period of six

7he Chevalier D'Eon. 131

months. Ministers were still disinclined to settle his various claims for arrears and indem- nities, and in order to prevent his arrest for debt they had been obliged to provide him with the aforesaid piece of parchment, but for which he would hardly have ventured to carry the ratifi- cations to Paris.

The ladies with whom the newly-fledged Chevalier now associated appear to have been delighted with him. The Duchess de Nivernais and her daughter, the Countess de Gisors, widow of the brave young son of Marshal de Belle-Isle, did not tire of singing D'Eon's praises, whilst the Countess Marie Th^rese de Rochefort, another widow, nie de Brancas, is said to have positively doted on him. None of the Chevalier's biographers seem to have been aware that this Countess de Rochefort — a great friend, by the way, of Anne Pitt, the eminent statesman's clever sister — ^was the particular flame of the Duke de Nivernais, who had long been paying his addresses to her, although he was a married man; and D'Eon no doubt became acquainted with her through having to deliver to her some letter or madrigal with which he had been en- trusted by the Duke. It was in celebration of the Countess de Rochefort's charms that Niver- nais penned some of his best verses. He worshipped at her shrine for nearly forty years, and at last, on becoming a widower in 1782, he was able to marry her, each then being sixty- six years of age. But Nivernais* happiness was

132 The Chevalier URon.

of brief duration, for twenty days after the wedding the Duchess died.

Unprepossessing as Nivernais was in appear- ance, one can well understand Madame de Rochefort preferring his good-looking young secretary; still, we strongly doubt the story of her flirtation with D'Eon — a flirtation magni- fied by some into a positive intrigue. In point of faft, the Countess had at this period quite lost her bloom, and she was forty-seven years of age. For the sentimental, frail, large-eyed, hollow - cheeked Nivernais — nicknamed by certain caricaturists the " Duke of Barebones " * — she doubtless presented attradlions; but it is difficult to imagine D'Eon, ever so frigid and dispassionate, falling in love with a woman already extremely passie and old enough to be his mother. In retailing their improbable story D'Eon's English and French biographers do not seem to have paid any attention to the question of Madame de Rochefort's age and looks; for they allude to her as a sprightly and handsome young widow! At all events, if there was any flirtation between the pair, it was doubtless a purely platonic one, and certainly it was brief, for the Chevalier only remained a few weeks in

^ I have borrowed these epithets from Mr. Austin Dobson's sketch of Nivernais in his " Eighteenth Century Vignettes " (2nd Series), but it is as well I should mention that my brief account of the Duke and his embassy was prepared long before the publication of Mr. Dobson's entertaining volumes. In several instances Mr. Dobson and myself seem to have gone to identical sources of information.

The Chevalier D*Eon. 133

France, whither he was not destined to return for many years.

It had been prearranged that Nivemais' mission should come to an end as soon as the peace was ratified, and a successor had already been found for him in the person of the Count de Guerchy, the general with whom D*Eon had quarrelled during the war of 1761, when conveying Broglie^s powder waggons across the Weser. Guerchy appeared to be singularly ill- fitted for ambassadorial fun6lions, as he possessed very little education. Even Praslin, the Foreign Minister, admitted that he "dreaded the Count's despatches like 6re," but added that he had no one better fitted for the post. Guerchy, by the way, was rich in titles and estates — for, besides being a Count, he was Marquis de Nangis and Viscount de Fontenay-le-Marmion — ^but, like many another ^r^;?^ seigneur of the time, he was not particularly well supplied with money. Such influence as he possessed was derived, on the one hand, from his wife, who belonged to the powerful Harcourt family and is said to have been the mistress of the Duke de Praslin; and, on the other, from Madame de Pompadour, whose favour he had courted by the performance of sundry petty offices, such as picking up her slippers and carrying her candlestick. This may seem strange, but it was indeed by such services as these that Frenchmen became marshals and ambassadors in those days.

D'Eon was not at all disposed to serve under

136 The Chevalier D'Eon.

Bridge, affording plenty of sport for idle appren- tices, and that fairs were held on the Thames, which was covered with so thick and solid a coating of ice that at Richmond some members of the nobility drove up and down the river in their coaches. And it was not merely the cold and the fog that made Nivernais so wretched. According to his own account, he had to walk about during the morning to attend to his diplomatic duties, while in the afternoon he had to take horse and ride so as to rid himself of the terrible attacks of indigestion which he owed, he said, to our abominable English cookery. " Battered " though he may have been, we find that occasionally he did evince some liveliness, as for instance when he played the violin and danced a minuet with Horace Walpole, to the delight and amusement of a large company, at an entertainment given by Miss Pelham at Esher. He also bestirred him- self at times to pay his addresses to the '^ lean, coarse-featured" Duchess of Grafton/ Still, these were but transient flashes, and on the whole Nivernais was sadly bored, and had no keener desire than to get back to sunny France and Parisian or Versaillese kickshaws; to which indeed he once more betook himself in May, after making a trip to Oxford to receive the degree of D.C.L.

A brief period of prosperity now opened for

^ Mr. Austin Dobson calb the Duchess beautiful, but Walpole, perhaps in spite, uses the adjedives given above.

The Chevalier D^Eon. 137

D*Eon, who had begun to figure in English society. One result of the peace had been a great rush of English people of wealth and title to Paris, and various French notabilities retuhied the compliment by coming to London. Among the latter were many of the Prince de Conti's admirers and satellites, including even the so-called "Idol" of the Temple — ^the witty Countess de Boufflers-Rouverel.* Walpole mentions inviting this lady and some of her compatriots to a lunch at Strawberry Hill, and D'Eon formed one of the party, which does not appear, however, to have been a very merry one, tor Madame de Boufflers had already been so terribly lionized, and subjected to so much sight-seeing, that she was hardly herself. " She arrived," says Walpole, " with her eyes a foot deep in her head, her hands dangling and scarce able to support her knitting-bag." A certain Madame d'Usson was apparently more to his liking, for she was " Dutch built " and endowed with " pleasure-proof " muscles.

Walpole, for whom, after all, there was only one French woman in the world, and that one Madame du DefFand, did not, judging by his correspondence, think much of Madame de Boufflers' claims to be considered a bel esprit^ though in public he addressed complimentary verses to her, asserting that she would

^ read her praise in every clime, Where types can speak or poets rhyme.'*

' See antiy pp. 4, 5.

138 The Chevalier D'Eon.

This, however, is no more than one might expeft from such an inveterate backbiter. Nor was he — ^in private, at all events — an admirer of the wit of the Princess de Beauvau, or that of the Mar^chale de Mirepoix, who also came over to England about this time, and upon whom D'Eon as minister resident necessarily had to dance attendance. Of this trio of grandes dames the petite marichak^ as Madame de Mirepoix was familiarly called, was apparently the most agreeable person. According to the Prince de Ligne she was less artificial than any of her contemporaries, and yet even she failed to please the fastidious English society of the time.

D*Eon did not only have to wait on noble dames, his ofEce also brought him into inter- course with eminent litterateurs and savants. Duclos the historian now paid us a visit, and the Academy of Sciences despatched La Conda- mine, Le Camus, and Lalande to London to report on the chronometer for determining longitude at sea, which gained for John Harrison a State reward of ^20,000. D'Eon presented these gentlemen at Court, and took them to see the London sights. One arternoon. La Conda- mine, who was lodging at a milliner's in Suffolk Street, sent for the Chevalier, in dire alarm. For some reason or other his landlady had found him to be an undesirable tenant, and wishing to ejeA him had procured the assistance of a couple of sherifPs officers, who laid violent

The Chevalier D^Eon. 139

hands upon the indignant savant. He was not strong enough to resist them, but after despatch- ing a messenger for D'Eon he resorted to invinc^>le ta£tics by producing a couple of shillings, which the men eagerly pounced upon, and hurried off to spend at the nearest tavern, leaving the landlady's orders unexecuted. When D*Eon arrived, therefore, his help was not needed. Nevertheless, La Condamine, after venting his anger in a long letter to the public prints, in which he described the English as a nation of barbarians^" packed up his luggage and returned to France.

Being constantly called upon to present more or less distinguished compatriots at the levies at St. James's Palace, D*Eon necessarily spent a good deal of his time at Court, and it appears that George III. and Queen Charlotte treated him very graciously. Now and again the Chevalier's diplomatic duties required that he should have audience with their Majesties, at times with the King on some affair of state, at others with the Queen to deliver some com- plimentary message. D'Eon necessarily re- ceived notes fixing the date and hour of these audiences, and some of these notes are among his papers preserved at the public library at Tonnerre. Rather more than half a century ago, a French author (the first to write a work of any importance on the Chevalier) , who had examined these papers, including the notes in question, declared they supplied proof that at

140 The Chevalier D^Eon.

the period now being dealt with an immoral intrigue had existed between D'Eon and that royal pattern of propriety. Queen Charlotte.*

That the charge was nothing more than a foul fabrication was at the time shown, and subsequently admitted by its author; never- theless, thirty years later, on rewriting his work* and expunging from it everything which, according to his own account, was not true, he returned to the charge by formally asserting that various notes in the Tonnerre library, signed Cockrell, and sealed with the royal arms of England, proved that there had at least been some very mysterious intercourse between the Queen and D*Eon, whom her Majesty had been in the habit of receiving secretly at mid- night

It may seem superfluous to defend Queen Charlotte's memory against such an accusation as this, still we have procured copies of the notes in question, and from their contents, now, we believe, for the first time made public, the reader will see that they in no wise bear out the accusations referred to.' They are, indeed, the most innocent little billets in the

• Gaillardet's "Chevalier D*Eon,** 1836.

' Under the title of " Metnoires sur la Chevaliere D'Eon," Paris, 1866.

' The author is indebted for these copies, and for copies of other documents and much valuable information generally respe£Hng the Chevalier D'Eon, to M. Isidore Hariot, the courteous librarian of Tonnerre, to whom he here desires to tender his gratefid acknowledgments.

The Chevalier D'Eon. 141

world, and only a Frenchman of highly imaginative mind could have construed them as indicating either impropriety or mystery.

There are four of them in all. On the margin of one, D'Eon himself has written: " Note from Mr. Cockrell, Master of the Cere- monies at the English Court." Another bears a seal, the imprint of which is so defaced that it is impossible to say whether it was ever that of the English royal arms, as is supposed, or not. This, however, is a matter of little consequence. All four notes are in the French language. One, dated Odtober 26, 1763, requests D'Eon to attend the King*s lev6e, in order that he may afterwards be received in audience. A second one, dated '^ Sunday morning, Odober, 1763, " desires the Chevalier to repair on the following Tuesday to Leicester House (the residence, it may be mentioned, of the Dowager Princess of Wales), " where Mr. Cockrell will meet him to condud him to his audiences." The two other notes concern the Queen, and run as follows:

No. I • " Mr. Cockrell presents his com- pliments to Monsieur d*Eon, and begs him to be at St. James's to-morrow, when he will have the honour to meet him and conduct him to an audience with the Queen after the circle. — Saturday, May 21, 1763."

No. 2. "Mr. Cockrell presents his com- pliments to Monsieur le Chevalier d'Eon, and has the honour to inform him that he will be

142 T^he Chevalier D'Eon.

received in audience by the Queen to-day, before or after the circle, Mr. Cockrell will therefore have the honour to call upon Monsieur le Chevalier at a quarter past one o'clock, or will wait for him at Court, whichever may be more convenient. — Sunday morning."

That is all! And yet these notes served — it is admitted — as the sole basis, in the first instance, of an elaborate account of the amours of Queen Charlotte and the Chevalier d*Eon, and in the second of the charge that there were at least secret no<fturnal interviews and mysterious negotiations between them. Had there been anything of the kind, it is quite unlikely that Mr. Cockrell, the royal Master of the Ceremonies, would have been employed to introduce D'Eon into the Queen's presence on these occasions. The author of the charges referred to is now dead and gone, still it was necessary that attention should be called to his preposterous invention, as his writings remain, and are still considered the chief authorities on D'Eon in France.

Far from being engaged in any intrigue with Queen Charlotte, the young Chevalier was at this period devoting himself to an important matter which had been entrusted to him by Louis XV. and Count de Broglic. Among the clauses of the treaty of Paris there was one specifying that the fortifications of Dunkirk should be levelled and the harbour "reduced to the state which had been fixed by the treaty

The Cbwalier D^Eon. 143

of Aix-la-Chapcllc and preceding treaties." This clause was hateful and offensive to the Well-Beloved, the more so as it especially provided that an English commissary should be present to see that the work of levelling the fortifications was properly carried out.^ Louis on more than one occasion expressed his desire to revenge himself for " this piece of English insolence," which so rankled in his mind that in April, 1763, when the Count de Broglie forwarded him a long memoir suggesting an invasion of England, he readily entertained the proposal. The treaty of peace was then but two months old.

This idea of a descent on our shores had originated with the Sieur Durand, who has been previously mentioned as Louis XV.*s secret agent at Warsaw,* and who had now become archivist of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He, Broglie, and Tercier were ordered to take all needful steps in the matter, and they resolved to send to England a certain Marquis Carlet de la Roziire, who was distantly related to D'Eon, and had been originally an engineer, then a staff-officer, and afterwards chief commander of the dragoons serving with Marshal de Broglie in 1760-61. La Rozi^re, who was still young, already enjoyed a high reputation as a military man; and at one time,

• D'Eon as Minister Plenijpotentiary managed to delay the

demolition of the lunette at Dunkirk for five months. ^ See anti^ pp. 103, 109.

144 The Chevalier D^Eon.

when he was a prisoner of the Prussians, Frederick the Great had refused to sanation his exchange, remarking: " As I have been lucky enough to take so distinguished an officer, I mean to keep him as long as possible."

La Rozi^re received instrudtions to inspect the English coast, to sele<5t a suitable spot for landing a French force, and to decide on the best line of route for a march on London. As he might be arrested in the course of his investigations, it was arranged that he should leave all compromising papers with D'Eon. The latter being officially accredited enjoyed immunity from arrest, and could moreover prevent the seizure of the documents in question by keeping them concealed within the inviol- able precin6ts of the French embassy. Louis XV. was plotting this invasion of England quite unknown to his ministers and his mistress; and Broglie accordingly instrufted D'Eon to be very cautious with everybody, and particularly with Count de Guerchy, whom he described somewhat erroneously as a "very cunning" man. He indeed feared that when Guerchy came to London he might endeavour to fathom this secret intrigue, and every precaution there- fore was to be taken to prevent La Rozi^re's instructions, plans, and reports from falling into his hands. All possible contingencies were foreseen in Broglie's instructions. An accident might happen to D'Eon, and he might even suddenly die, in which case his private papers

T^be Chevalier D^Eon. 145

would be at the mercy of his superior. Ac€X>rdingly it was arranged that one of his cousins, Charles Maurice d'Eon de Mouloize, a young fellow of eight-and-twenty, serving as a lieutenant in the Conti regiment, should join him in London for the purpose of keeping watch over his papers, and taking possession of them should such a course become necessary to prevent them from being appropriated by Guerchy.

The first suggestions respedting the invasion of England were made in April, 1763, and in the latter part of May La Roziere set out for London. On June 3rd Louis XV. wrote to D'Eon urging him to the greatest secrecy, and telling him that he must not communicate the matter to any living being, particularly the ministers. Whilst assisting La Roziere, moreover, he was to acquaint Count de Broglie and Tercier — by means of a special cipher and under cover of addresses which would be communicated to him — with all the information he could coUeft on the designs of England with reference to Russia and Poland, the North (/>., Sweden, Norway, Denmark), and the whole of Germany.*

For his communications with Broglie, D'Eon did not consider a special cipher a sufficient precaution, and accordingly he suggested that nicknames should be assigned to the various

^ Archives des Afiaires Etrangeres.

L

146 The Chevalier D^.Eon.

persons who were likely to be mentioned in the correspondence. This proposal was adopted, and it was arranged that the King and others should always be referred to by the sobriquets given below:

Louis XV The advocate.

M. Tcrcier .... The procuror.

Count de Broglie . . The assessor.

M. Dunmd .... The prudent.

Duke de Nivernais The honey-tongued.

Duke de Praslin . . The bitter-mouthed.

Duke de Choiseul The red lion or porcelain.

Count de Guerchy . The novice, ram, or horned sheep.

Chevalier d'Eon . . The intrepid, or the dragoon's head.^

Thus, whilst D'Eon was smirking at Sl James's and at Leicester House, lunching at Strawberry Hill, or regaling English politicians and foreign diplomatists with that petit vin de Tonnerre " which he called " the great loosener of tongues," whilst he was consorting at state entertainments and public assemblies with members of the ministry and aristocracy, fawning upon one, smiling upon another, seek- ing to ingratiate himself with everybody of note he came across, he was simply planning a resumption of hostilities, an invasion of the country in which he had received so cordial a welcome. Of course, there is nothing to excite surprise in this. Members of the diplomatic service all the world over do much the same

^ <<Tete de Dragon," which means of course both the dragon's head and the dragoon's head«

The Chevalier D'Eon. 147

thing. What are ambassadors but licensed spies and professional tricksters, lavishly paid and decorated for their services? The people who deny this simply shut their eyes to the truth. The foreign envoy, whoever or what- ever he may be, is usually made much of, banquetted, entertained in a variety of ways, and on his side he entertains the society that has received him, and now and again becomes immensely popular with it — until perhaps a war breaks out, and he stands revealed in his true light. Or there may be no war, the envoy may become ripe in years and honours, and go the way of all flesh, deeply regretted by those he lived among; and a century or so may pass away before some historian, ferreting among old records and archives, discovers that this highly-respefted diplomatist spent his time in trying to trick and ruin those with whom he was most intimate. Diplomacy is no doubt a necessary evil, but only Pharisees can contend that — pursued as it too frequently is, even now- adays, with deceit on the lips and bribes in the hand — there is anything honourable about it.

So far as the Chevalier d*Eon was concerned, in carrying out the instructions of Louis XV. and Broglie one may admit that he did no worse than many another envoy had done before him. The only difference in his case was that he was not officially instructed to follow the course he pursued. The invasion of England being the King's secret scheme.

14? "The. Chevalier D'Eon.

ministers knew nothing about it^ and it was this circunaistance of having to play a double role which contributed as much as anything to D'Eon's sudden downfall and ruin. He had now reached the highest point of his fortune. It so happened that Mr. Neville, who had been sent as Minister Resident to France, was in- formed by the Introdud:eur des Ambassadeurs that, according to French Court etiquette^ a Resident could not present his letters in person. In England the regulations were different, and D*Eon had been duly received by George III. Neville urged his claim to similar treatment, but the punctilious French would not hear of it. A long correspondence ensued between the two governments, with the result that D'Eon was promoted to be Minister Plenipo- tentiary, Neville obtaining a similar step in rank, which enabled him to present his cre- dentials to the Well-Beloved. This no doubt was a source of considerable satisfaction to both diplomatists; however, as will now be shown, D'Eon's delight was by no means unalloyed.

VIII.

May — November, 1763.

D'Eon is accused of Extravagance — He writes intemperate Letters to France and removes State Papers from the Embassy — An alleged Letter of Warning from Louis XV, — ^The Chevalier, recalled to France, sets his Orders at Defiance — He refuses to deliver his Papers to Guerchy — Madame dc Pompadour in the part of Paul Pry — Why Praslin wished to secure D'Eon's Paperi — The Chevalier'9 Quarrel with Verzy — A strange Scene at Lord Halifax's and its Sequel — One of Horace Walpole's Jokes^ — D'Eon asserts that Guerchy has drugged him — He is surrounded by Spies, Thieves, and Kidnappers — Spirit-rapping extraordinary.

IIVERNAIS had returned to France without making any arrangements respecting the es- tablishment he had kept up in London, where he had quar- tered himselfat Lady Yarmouth's house in Albemarle Street; D'Eon and the secretariat finding accommodation in Soho Square.' The Duke gone, D'Eon had to attend

• The French embassy there occupied the centre house on

the south side, then the property of Lord Batcman, and, pFeviously, the London residence of the Duke of Alonmouth, Charles iL's illegitimate son. — Pennant.

150 The Chevalier D'Eon.

to everything. There were servants to be dis- missed, others to be passed on to Count de Guerchy; horses, also, and articles of furniture to be disposed of in one way or another, and the result was a perfeft imbroglio, in which D'Eon became hopelessly entangled. He was entitled as Minister Plenipotentiary to a salary of 1 2,000 livres, but his expenses of living were to be paid out of the embassy funds. Very soon, however, Praslin, Guerchy, and Nivernais alike complained that he was unnecessarily extravagant; and, in addition to this, when he charged some item of expenditure to Nivernais, the Duke declared that it ought to be charged to Guerchy, who, on his side, protested that it did not concern him. Driven in this way from pillar to post, D'Eon soon became ex- tremely indignant, and a lively correspondence ensued.

Enjoying as he did the royal confidence with reference to the scheme for invading England, D'Eon appears to have considered himself indispensable, and unwisely assumed a most aggressive style in writing, not only to Guerchy, but also to the Duke de Praslin. The former, it is true, had imputed the Chevalier's appointment as Minister Plenipo- tentiary to mere chance, and the latter had expressed his surprise that D'Eon should have allowed his promotion to make him forget the point whence he had started. These remarks stung D'Eon to the quick, and he retaliated by

The Chevalier D'Eon. 151

penning some defiant efFusions which sorely distressed his friends in France. Tercier, whilst admitting that he was in the right, implored him to be prudent, and Broglie became quite alarmed at having confided the King's secret to such an excitable individual.

However, the dispute went on. Pressed by his creditors, D'Eon on his side pressed, but in vain, for his arrears and indenmities. At the same time he denied, and indeed disproved, the charges of extravagance which were preferred against him, mainly by Guerchy, who was continually complaining that all his money would be spent before his arrival in London.

The pecuniary side of the question was that which most afFe6ted the new ambassador, and to adjust matters he eventually suggested that the King should be requested to grant an indemnity to D'Eon, which indemnity should go into his (Guerchy's) pocket, as a set-ofi^ against the em- bassy money which D'Eon was spending. This proposed of course added fresh fuel to the fire. Then, too, D'Eon had another important grievance. Upon Guerchy's arrival in England he was to lose his rank as Minister Plenipoten- tiary and become once more a simple Secretary of Legation. Nivernais, Durand, Tercier, and others frankly admitted that this was a great piece of injustice, but D'Eon's letters to Mini- ster Praslin were not of a character to win him the latter's favour or to facilitate any adjust- ment of the difficulty.

152 The Chevalier UEon.

The Chevalier no doubt displayed at this period great spirit, disinterestedness, and inde- pendence of charad:er, but these were certainly not qualities suited to the times in which he lived. In the eighteenth century — par excel- lence the age of sycophantry — men invariably addressed their superiors with bated breath and whispering humbleness; and it was because D'Eon failed to conform to this usage that most of his misfortunes fell upon him.

The English government having appointed the Earl of Hertford Ambassador to France, early in the autunm of 1763 it became necessary that Count de Guerchy should repair to his post without further delay. Count de Broglie, as we have already seen, was extremely sus- picious of Guerchy, whom he deemed to be remarkably cunning, and, as the time for the ambassador's departure for England drew nigh, he grew more and more anxious respecting the documents conneded with La Rozi^re's mission. As he was more afraid even of their falling into Guerchy's hands than into those of the English authorities, he at last instru<fted D'Eon to re- move them from the French embassy; and the Chevalier then deposited them at the residence of his cousin, D*Eon de Mouloize, in Dover Street, whither he himself removed imme- diately upon Guerchy's arrival.

A few days before the new ambassador reached London, D'Eon, according to his. own account — ^written long afterwards—received by

T^e Chevalier D^Eon. 153

a secret courier the following remarkable auto*- graph letter from Louis XV.:

" Versailles,

" OSlobit 4, 1 763.

" You have served me as usefully in woman's clothes as in those which you now wear. Re- assume them at once, and withdraw into the City. I warn you that the King has this day signed, but only with the stamp, not with his hand, an order for your return to France; but I command you to remain in England with all your papers until I send you further in- strudions. You are not in safety at your resi- dence, and here you would find powerful enemies. " Louis/*

Though it is a fad; that the Chevalier's recall had at this time been determined on by Praslin, it is extremely improbable that D'Eon ever received any such warning note as the above from Louis XV.; * for had he received it

^ Captain Telfer repeatedly quotes this letter, and refers to it as a genuine document on the strength of Madame Campan's assertion that in 1777 she heard D'Eon repeat the contents of it to her father. However, among the mass of documents which have been preserved in connection with D'Eon, both in England and in France, there is no trace of this letter, other than an alleged copy of it in D'Eon's own MS. memoirs in the Archives des AiBures Etrangeres. Yet Captain Telfer, each time that he mentions it, appends the note, ^^ autograph letter," and refers <Mie to M. Boutaric's well-known work on Louis XV.'s secret correspondence. M. Boutaric, however, simply derived the letter from the D'Eon MS. memoirs. The original does not exist in any of the French archives, or in the library at Tonnerre. The

154 ^^ Chevalier D^Eon.

indeed, he, who prided himself on his alacrity in obeying the royal commands, would doubtless have at once a£ted on the instrudfcions thus con- veyed to him. But he neither assumed female attire nor did he retire into the City. And it is strange that Louis XV. should have sent him such a communication, for writing secretly to his confidant Tercier, on Odober 1 1 and 1 2, 1763 (that is, a week after penning the note which D*Eon asserts he received), the King said: " D'Eon's office as Minister Plenipotentiary appears to have turned his head. M. de Praslin has proposed to me that he should be brought here in order that one may inquire into the matter. Be careful with reference to every- thing concerning the secret. * . . You will see him (D'Eon) on his arrival in Paris, and I authorize you to concert precautions with him in order that the secret may be kept." * From these words it would appear certain that the King expedled D'Eon to return to France; Louis had no reason to deceive, or hide any- thing from, his confidant Tercier; so what is to

Dukede Broglie pointed this out in his ** Secret duRoi, which Captain Tdfer quotes readily enough when it serves his purpose to do so. The Duke^ opinion, which is abo our own, is that D*£on concoded this letter at a subsequent stage of his career, with the view of accounting for the line of a£tion which he ultimately thought fit to adopt.

^ The originals of these letters are in the National Archives. Captain Telfer quotes them, but fails to perceive that they are in formal contradidion with the alleged in- strudions to remain in London.

The Chevalier D'Eon. 155

be thought of the allegation that he at this jundure instixufted the Chevalier to remain in England?

The Count de Guerchy arrived in London in the middle of Odober, and put up, we are told, at Lord Holland's. When D'Eon waited on him shortly afterwards, an unseemly wrangle arose between them respecting the more or less abusive missives which they had recently ex- changed. On the morrow Guerchy handed D'Eon his letters of recall, which, according to the instructions of the Duke de Praslin, were to be presented to George IIL with the least possible delay, after which the Chevalier was to quit London immediately and proceed to Paris, where he was to report his arrival and await instructions without going to Court.

It is admitted by all D'Eon's biographers that he was extremely startled by the receipt of this intimation, which would hardly have been the case had he really been in possession of the alleged secret note written to him by the King a fortnight previously. Recalled in dis- grace, forbidden to appear at Court! This was the crowning blow. He had had other grievances; he had been falsely charged with extravagance amounting almost to peculation; he had over and over again vainly endeavoured to obtain money which was his due; still he had hitherto anticipated that justice would finally be done him. But this seemed farther away than ever; and, disgraced when he

156 T^he Chevalier D^Eon.

deemed himself worthy of reward, he was urged by his excitable, impulsive Burgundian nature into an extremely foolish line of condu^. It may readily be granted that he was not absolutely demented, though in France at the time such was believed to be the case — this assumption being largely based on the extraor- dinary letters which for some months he had been writing to the ministers and Guerchy, These letters — one of which, now in the French foreign archives, was really a most offensive and even obscene effusion — ^had been shown to Louis XV., and would alone suffice to ac- count for the Chevalier's peremptory recall.

D'Eon, however, whether backed up or not by secret instructions to remain in London, resolved to set his official orders at defiance. He gave up to Guerchy some portion of the ordinary embassy archives, but retained in his possession quite a mass of official papers, in- cluding liumerous letters from Praslin to the Duke de Nivemais and copies of many of Nivemais' letters to Praslin; and these, by a scarcely justifiable breach of confidence, he sub- sequently made public. He further retained (as in duty bound) all the documents bearing on the projefted invasion of England, in fa6t everything belonging to the secret correspon- dence; and we are led to infer that he also kept back papers relating to his own official work as Minister Plenipotentiary. Guerchy at once declared that D'Eon had by no means handed

The Chevalier D^Eon. 157

everything over to him, and demanded that all me documents which had passed into his custody during his term of office should be immediately given up; but D'Eon replied that he had only kept such papers as he considered he had a right to keep, and that he would not surrender them unless he had orders to that effe<^ from the King himself.

This answer alone was sufficient to arouse suspicion, even if Guerchy had not been sus* picious already. He had, however, brought with him to London, as one of his secretaries, a certain Monin, who had once been his tutor, and had subsequently become confidential sec- retary to the Prince de Conti,^ in which capa- city he had been well acquainted with D*Eon and the Chevalier Douglas. Monin was not at this period employed by the Count de Broglie and Tercier in the secret service, and therefore knew nothing of the contemplated invasion of England; but he was well aware that D'Eon, Broglie, and Tercier had corre- sponded together in the past. D'Eon asserts that Monin had already told Guerchy all he knew about himself and Broglie, and that Guerchy had carried his information to Praslin, who in his turn had communicated it to Madame de Pompadour. " Thereupon," says D'Eon in his MS. memoirs,* "the King's favourite resolved to investigate the matter."

^ See anti^ pp. 44, 92.

• Archives des Afeires Etrangeres.

158 The Chevalier D^ Ron.

So far the Chevalier's assertions are plausible enough, but he goes on to relate a highly romantic and improbable story, which may be briefly rendered as follows:

Madame de Pompadour, we are told, had noticed that Louis XV. habitually " carried about him the small golden key of an elegant piece of furniture, a sort of escritoire, in his private apartments. Never could the favourite succeed, even in moments of her greatest in- fluence, in obtaining access to this piece of furniture. It was a kind of sandtuary, a holy ark, the refuge, the place of exile, as it were, of the sovereign's will. Louis XV. no longer reigned except over this escritoire. ' It con- tains State papers! ' Such was his reply to her frequent solicitations." However, one night in June, 1763, after supping tite'-a-tite with his mistress, the King fell fast asleep, it is alleged, and during his slumber Madame de Pompadour made off with the key in question, and rum- maged among the papers in the escritoire; subsequently communicating her discoveries to Praslin, who was in her confidence. It has been pointed out, however, that in the summer of 1763 La Pompadour was already suffering from the slow fever or decline which eventually carried her off, and that for some months all amorous intercourse between herself and the King had ceased.* Moreover, none of the existing documents conne£ted with the secret

' Broglie, voL ii. p. 138.

The Chevalier D^Eon. 159

service corroborate the above account. Broglie and Tercier, who should have been the nrst persons warned by the King respecting this discovery — since we are told that the Well- Beloved realized what had happened by finding his papers in confusion — do not appear to have ever known of it. D'Eon, it is true, asserts that Tercier wrote informing him of what had happened, and commanding him in the King's name to observe the greatest prudence and cir- cumspection in his intercourse with Guerchy, who, his Majesty had reason to believe, was entirely devoted to the Duke de Praslin and Madame de Pompadour.*' This, however, is simply D'Eon's statement, and it is not corro- borated by any independent testimony.

If his story were true, Madame de Pompadour must have satisfied her curiosity, and have ascer- tained what secret work it was that he, Broglie^ and others, were engaged upon. But it is cer- tain that she only entertained suspicions on the subject; and the jealousy with which we find Louis XV. subsequently guarding his secret shows that it cannot have been surprised by his favourite. But really there is no need of the romantic story related by D'Eon to explain why Guerchy should have been instructed by Praslin to secure D'Eon's private papers. Monin's revelations would alone account for everything. For years and years, moreover. Count de Broglie's secret intercourse with the Well-Beloved had been susped:ed by those in

i6o T^he Chevalier D^Eon.

power. Both La Pompadour and Praslin hated the Broglies; and, whether the favourite and the minister ad:ed together, or whether the minister alone initiated the affair — ^with the approval of his cousin the Duke de Choiseul, also strongly opposed to the Broglie family-^ the objeift of the orders given to Guerchy was undoubtedly to fathom D'Eon's relations with Count de Broglie. There was a desire to punish D'Eon for what was considered the presumptuous and intemperate manner in which he had addressed ministers, but there was yet a stronger desire to ruin Count de Broglie, and to prevent him from exercising any further influence with the King. D'Eon in himself was not at this stage considered dangerous by those in power, but they feared Broglie, and over and over again exerted themselves to expose him and frustrate his secret intrigues.

As D*Eon would give up no papers beyond those which he had surrendered in the first instance, and as he likewise refused to present his letters of recall, and proved altogether in- traffcable, he and Guerchy were soon at daggers drawn, though for a short time appearances were kept up, and they still met and dined together.

A few days subsequent to the ambassador's arrival, D'Eon, after dining at the embassy with his superior, was (according to his own account) spending the evening there, when a certain M. Treyssac de Vergy was announced. This person.

The Chevalier D'Eon. i6i

whom the Chevalier deemed to be a suspicious chara&er, with designs possibly on his secret papers, had come over to London without any letters of recommendation, and had been hang- ing about the embassy for some months, assert- ing that he was a great friend of the Guerchy family. On the evening referred to, D'Eon challenged him as to this friendship, where- upon he still declared that he knew the am- bassador extremely well, but Guerchy sharply retorted that such was not the case. Vergy, nettled by D*Eon*s interference, thereupon accused the Chevalier of being an ill-bred man, and added, in a declamatory tone, that he (D'Eon) did not know the fate that awaited him in France. An altercation ensued, but was stopped by the ambassador; however, to D'Eon's amazement, instead of turning the " unknown " Vergy out of the house, Guerchy allowed him to spend the evening in his company.

Three days later, Vergy called upon D'Eon in Dover Street, and, D'Eon being absent, left word that he would return the next morning, in full expe6tation that the Chevalier would then be at home. D'Eon perfedly understood the meaning of this message, and was quite prepared to encounter Vergy with either sword or pistol. That same evening the Earl of Halifax, then Foreign Secretary, gave a dinner in Guerchy's honour at his residence in Great George Street, and D'Eon was among

M

1 62 The Chevalier D^Eon.

the company. After the repast, the Chevalier thought fit, with what motive one can hardly say, to inform Lord Halifax of his quarrel with Vergy and of his intention to fight a duel with him. Halifax, disapproving of this con- templated breach of the peace, at once begged D'Eon to renounce his design, but D'Eon retorted that as Vergy had appointed an hour to see him he should most certainly await his coming. "Well, then," said Lord Halifax, " were you even the Duke of Bedford I should have to give you in charge of the Guards."

The Earl of Sandwich and George Gren- ville, who were present, joined Lord Halifax in endeavouring to bring D'Eon to reason, but he proved obdurate, and was about to leave the room when he found the door locked, and was informed that before he could depart he must sign a document promising that he would on no account fight Vergy. As he obstinately refused to comply with this con- dition, the door was at last thrown open, and a detachment of the Guards with nxed bayonets marched in as though for the pur- pose of securing his person. For the moment, however, the soldiers were simply stationed in the apartment in such a way as to prevent all attempts at escape.

Their presence failed to intimidate D*Eon, who, after indulging in some mock heroics, still persisted in his reftisal to sign the declara- tion submitted to him; and it was only after a

The Chevalier D^Eon. 163

prolonged wrangle that an understanding of a nature to satisfy Lord Halifax's requirements, and at the same time *' save D'Eon's honour/' was arrived at. The Guards were withdrawn, so that it might not be said that the Chevalier yielded to any fear of their intervention, and he then appended his signature and the words, " By order, and because of the respedt which I owe to the Ambassador of the King my master," to a paper stipulating that " he would not fight M. de Vergy or insult him in any way without previously communicating his intentions to the Earls of^Sandwich and Halifax, so that they might be able to prevent any evil consequences arising from his condu6t/'

This strange affair, it may be pointed out, was an after-dinner occurrence, and, heavy drinking then being so much the fashion, it is quite possible that D'Eon was purely and simply intoxicated. However, it would seem to have increased the belief that his mind was really unhinged. Horace Walpole wrote to Lord Hertford in Paris that the honour of having a hand in the peace had overset D'Eon's poor brain. ^'On the fatal night at Lord Halifax's," added Walpole, jocularly, "when they told him that his behaviour was a breach of the peace, he was quite distraded, thinking it was the peace between his country and this."

Vergy (in all likelihood knowing nothing of the scene at Lord Halifax's) duly presented himself at D'Eon's rooms in accordance with

164 The Chevalier D'Eon.

the message he had left there, and took fright, it seems, on espying a brace of pistols and a sabre^ with which he imagined that the Cheva- lier intended to despatch him. But D'Eon — always according to his own account — con- tented himself with calling Vergy an ad- venturer, and — ^in imitation of Lord Halifax's taftics— compelling him to sign a declaration that he would either produce proper letters ot recommendation from persons well known or in authority at Paris or Versailles, or else never show his face at the French embassy again. As soon as Vergy had put his name to this paper, which D'Eon subsequently for- warded to Guerchy, he was suffered to depart; whereupon, by way of taking his revenge, he swore an information against the Chevalier for contemplating a breach of the peace. D'Eon, however, calmly ignored the summons which was sent him to appear at Bow Street, so that the affair, for the time, came to nothing.

After the Chevalier's numerous altercations with Guerchy, it seems somewhat strange that he should still have consorted with him and have continued to dine at the embassy, as he did every now and again. Probably, however, he adopted this course by way of asserting that, not having presented his letters of recall, he was still Minister Plenipotentiary. These letters he resolutely refused to deliver, con- tending that they were informal, since they were signed with the King's stamp instead of

The Chevalier D'Eon. 165

with his hand, and failed to specify that he, D'Eon, was a Knight of St. Louis and a Captain of dragoons, as well as a diplomatic envoy.

Two days after the scene at Lord Halifax's, the Chevdier is found dining at the French embassy in the company of the Countess and Mademoiselle de Guerchy, Secretary Monin, and Messieurs de Blosset and D'AUonville, the ambassador's aides-de-camp. Soon after dinner, so D'Eon subsequently declared, he began to feel unwell and extremely drowsy. He resolved to go home, and on leaving the house the use of a sedan chair was offered him. He declined it, however; returned home on foot, and fell sound asleep in his easy-chair. When he awoke he felt worse, for it now seemed to him as if his stomach were on fire; however, on going to bed, he slept soundly until noon, when his friend La Rozi^re roused him by kicking violently at his door.

This would seem to be a very trivial affair, were it not that, writing subsequently to Louis XV. and Tercier, D*Eon asserted that M. de Guerchy had caused some opium to be put in his wine on the occasion in question; the plan being to send him to sleep, so that he might be placed in a sedan and carried to the Thames, where there was a boat in readiness to convey him away.^

^ The dinner took place on Odober 28. D'Eon's account of it was not written till November i8. On the former date there was no idea of kidnapping him* Documents in the

1 66 The Chevalier D^Eon.

Guerchy, it should be mentioned, was dining that day with the Earl of Sandwich, and, ac- cording to D'Eon, had instructed a physician whom he kept in his house to put the opium in the wine. On Monin coming to see him on the morrow, the Chevalier began to com- plain of his illness, and Monin thereupon re- sponded that he himself had experienced similar, but not equally serious symptoms. A few days then elapsed, when, early one morning, Guerchy with his two aides-de-camp came to pay D*Eon a visit. The Chevalier at once related how ill he had been since last dining at the embassy, and the ambassador replied: " Oh, I have instructed my butler to keep a better eye on the kitchen department in future, for these gentlemen and M. Monin have also felt unwell."

This seemed a very plausible statement; still D*Eon could not divest himself of his suspicions. He felt sure that he had narrowly escaped foul play, and became extremely wary. There being something amiss with the lock of his door, his valet, apparently, procured the services of a locksmith, and not unnaturally selected one who had been in the habit of working at the embassy.

Archives des Afiaires Etrangeres show that this only origi- nated when an attempt to extradite him had failed, ay November i8 the prerarations for the kidnapping scheme were in progress, and D'Eon, who knew of them, wrongly inferred that they dated from the time of his dinner at the embassy. See tost^ P* 171*

The Chevalier D'Eon. 167

This circumstance, however, at once filled D'Eon with the deepest suspicions, which, if one may believe him, were speedily verified, for he wrote to the King and Tercier that he had adually deted:ed the locksmith taking a wax impression of the key, whilst pretending to attend to the lock. He also asserted that about this time attempts were made to corrupt his servants, and that he constantly found a couple of sedans stationed outside his door, although he had never ordered them. But his suspicions and alarm were brought to a climax by the circumstance that Monin and a certain L'Escallier (private secretary to the ambassador), together with other of Guerchy's dependants, suddenly took rooms in the same house as him- self L'Escallier, we are told, constantly em- ployed a young sweep to ascend the chinmey and make ghostly noises there; so that in the small hours of the morning D'Eon was awakened by repeated rapping, mingled with plaintive sounds, which, in a timid person, would doubtless have excited some alarm. According to the Chevalier, it was Guerchy who had instigated L'Escallier to employ the sweep, the idea being that the rapping and groaning would on some occasion so terrify him (D'Eon) as to induce him to summon his servants. Monin and the others were then to come forward and declare that nothing what- ever could be found, and that there was really not the slightest cause for fear. In the result

1 68 The Chevalier D'Eon.

D'Eon would be looked upon as a visionary or lunatic, and it would be possible for the ambassador to have him arrested and consigned to Bedlam.'

This was a fate which D'Eon by no means cared to experience, and as, in his estimation, so many suspicious things went on around him, he resolved to change his quarters. Having hastily packed his clothes and papers, he dis- missed his servants and sought an asylum with his friend and relative. La Rozi^re, who was living in the house of a wine merchant in Brewer Street, Golden Square.

' TeUer, p. 122.

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IX.

November, 1763 — ^July, 1764.

A Demand for the Chevalier's Extradition — Tlie King con- fides in Guerchy, but warns D'Eon — A Plot to kidnap the Chevalier — Hb Stronghold in Brewer Street — He is forbidden the English Court and declared Guilty of Treason — His ** Cettres, Memoircs et Negociations " create a Sensation in London and a Panic at Versailles — D'Eon threatens to divulge the King's Secret — Death of Madame de Pompadour — The Duke de Ch<Hseul and D'Eon — The Chevalier's Interview with M. de Nort — Guerchy prosecutes him for Libel, and he demands Guerchy'a Recall — The English Opposition offers D'Eon £^o,QQO for his Papers — Fresh Attempts to kidnap him — His Reconnaissances at Ranelagh and Vauxhall — The Mob attacks the French EmMssy — The Chevalier is found guilty of Libel and mysteriously disappean.

LJERCHY'S efforts to secure

D'Eon's papers having failed,

the Duke de Praslin represented

to the King that the Chevalier's

condud was highly treasonable,

and that an application for his

extradition ought to be made. Louis XV.

never dared to oppose his ministers openly, and

had hedoneso on thisoccasion he would certainly

170 The Chevalier UEon.

have aroused suspicions of his own complicity with D*Eon. He therefore authorizeid the application for the Chevalier's extradition, which application was at once drawn up. It was now early in November, 1763, and the Court was at Fontainebleau, whilst Tercier had remained in Paris, and Broglie was still in exile at RufFec. The King therefore could not obtain prompt advice from his private coun- sellors, and yet he was most desirous that D'Eon's papers should not fall into his ministers' hands. Immediate a£tion alone could avert an exposure, and in his dilemma the Well-Beloved resolved to unbosom himself to M. de Guerchy. He accordingly wrote him a very gracious auto- graph letter, instru^ng him, first, to retain all the papers which he might find in D'Eon's possession should the extradition be granted, and, secondly, to bring these papers with him to France at his next annual trip, when he was to deliver them to him (the King) in person. Louis XV. enjoined strift secrecy with regard to the matter, and added that, having learnt that Monin had some knowledge of the place where D'Eon had deposited the papers, he wished to know what Monin might have to say on the subje£fc.

Whilst writing in this strain to his ambassador the Well-Beloved had some misgivings appa- rently respeding Guerchy *s and Monin's fidelity to himself, and it occurred to him that it might after all be preferable that D'Eon should escape

The Chevalier D^Eon. 171

extradition, or at all events that he should place his precious papers in safe keeping. So, at the same time, Louis wrote to the Chevalier warn- ing him of the demand for his extradition, and adding, " If you cannot make your escape, save at least your papers, and do not trust M. Monin. . . . He is betraying you."^ Then he acquainted Tercier by letter with what he had done, re- marking: " If Guerchy should betray the secret he will betray me, and he will be a lost man. • • . I hope that he will not tell his wife " (!) "

Tercier was by no means easy in mind on learning the course that his master had taken, and Broglie, on his side quite alarmed, expressed the opinion that the secret would certainly be divulged by Guerchy, who had, no doubt, conmiunicated it to his wife already.

With the demand for D'Eon's extradition a number of French police-officers or " exempts " were despatched to London, in order to enable Guerchy to apprehend the Chevalier. But the British government having consulted the law officers of the crown, promptly informed the French ambassador that " according to the law of this kingdom it would be impossible to justify the seizure either of the person or of the papers of the Chevalier d'Eon.*' Then it was that Guerchy thought of another device.

^ It was, we believe, the receipt of this warning, dated Novembn- 4, which in after years partly prompted D'Eon to concod the alleged letter of OSfober 4. See anti^ p. 153.

' Archives Nationales, K. 157.

172 The Chevalier D^Eon.

The French exempts were to kidnap D'Eon, put him into a six-oared boat which was to be in readiness at Westminster, and convey him on board a small vessel lying at Gravesend.

D'Eon had by this time handed some portion of his papers over to La Rozi^re, who had taken them to France; however, he still held a large number[of documents, including the King's note of June 3rd, 1763, commissioning him to a6t in concert with La Roziere, and a most elaborate memoir by Count de Broglie, detailing the whole plan for the invasion of England. To protect these from seizure, and himself from abdud:ion, the Chevalier converted his apart- ments in Brewer Street ^ into a perfed strong- hold, mining, he asserts, not only his three rooms on the first floor, but also the staircase, which he further entrenched. "He kept a lamp burn- ing throughout the night, and had a red-hot poker at his side during the day. His arsenal included four brace of pistols, two guns, and eight sabres. The garrison consisted of several dragoons of his old regiment, for whom he had sent, and some deserters whom he picked up in

' D'Eon resided at No. 38, which is still standing. The writer of an article on the Chevalier in the '^ Book Plate Annual for 1895 says that D'Eon's house seems to have suffered more than any other in the street. ^The orna- mental door has been removed, and the ia9ade stuccoed. • . . In D'Eon's time this quarter was the centre of a haut ton^ Regent Street not then having been pierced, and the town ending at Hyde Park Corner. Soho was but commencing to decay, and its sister parish, Marylebone^ to gain an ascendancy."

The Chevalier D^Eon. 173

London, and who occupied the basement of the house, with orders to admit the French police- officers should thev at any time seek to enter, and then cut off tneir retreat whilst he himself defended the entrenchment. It was arranged that in the event of his being worsted he should make a preconcerted signal to his men to inti- mate that they were to run for their lives while he fired the mine." ^

The demand for D'Eon's extradition not having been granted, and there being seemingly but little prospeft of kidnapping him, Guerchy now made a last attempt at conciliation, which likewise failed; and thereupon he and Monin reported to Louis XV. that they had been quite unable to seize the Chevalier's papers. La Roziere, however, had now arrived in France, and for a short time the King possibly believed that he had brought all the compromising documents with him. At all events, Louis suddenly ceased communicating with D'Eon. Then came a coup de thSdtre. The " London Gazette " notified that His Majesty George IIL had forbidden the Chevalier his Court, and the French government formally divested him of all diplomatic status, pronounced him guilty of high treason, and declared that all his arrears of emoluments were forfeited to the crown.* The news caused a stir both in London and at Versailles. However, almost immediately

' Mr. Christy's D'Eon MSS., quoted by Telfcr, p. 128. ' " A new (and convenient) way to pay old debts."

174 T^h^ Chevalier D^Eon.

afterwards, Louis XV. realized that he had made a mistake in sandioning such extreme proceedings, for Broglie, after conversing with La Roziere, who painted the situation in the blackest colours, reported that D'Eon still held the most important of the secret papers.

Louis thus found himself in an awkward predicament, for if D'Eon, degraded and deprived of his livelihood, should either for money or revenge choose to divulge the documents he held-— documents proving that on the very morrow of signing the Peace of Paris the King of France had begun to plot and prepare an invasion of England, another war would almost inevitably ensue between the two countries. This prospedt, since France was by no means prepared for immediate hostilities, was well calculated to alarm the Well-Beloved, and in his dilemma he turned for help to Broglie, whose advice was that Guerchy and Praslin should leave D'Eon in peace, and that a friendly messenger should be sent to the Chevalier requesting him to return to France, and giving him a formal assurance that the royal protection should not fail him.

This was sensible advice, no doubt, and might have led to the termination of the whole business, but Louis XV. was at a loss for an excuse to induce Praslin to cease persecuting D'Eon, and also, for the time being, believed the latter to be less dangerous than Broglie asserted. Thus some months elapsed without anything

The Chevalier D'Eon. 175

being done, so that the Chevalier had every reason to consider himself abandoned. True, on one occasion, at this period, he received from Tercier a small sum of money, but such few letters as Tercier wrote to him were most discouraging.

For some time a vigorous pamphlet warfare had been going on in London between Guerchy and D'Eon. The former had opened hostilities by employing the adventurer Vergy and a certain Goudard to attack the Chevalier in print. D'Eon retorted vigorously, and at the beginning of the year 1764 resolved to strike a decisive blow. About the middle of March there was published in London a large quarto volume, entitled, " Lettres, M^moires et N^go- ciations du Chevalier D*Eon," which opened with a most virulent attack on Guerchy, and contained not only copies of certificates, letters, and despatches favourable to D'Eon, but also copious extra^ from the private correspondence of Praslin, Nivernais, and others, in some of which ministerial secrets and matters of a delicate and confidential nature were discussed, whilst in others Guerchy was held up to contempt and ridicule as being unable to write and scarcely competent to discharge his ambas- sadorial functions. D'Eon had further inserted in the volume some of his own offensive missives to Praslin and Guerchy — the very letters, in fa6t, which had been utilized as a pretext for recalling him — and, indeed, he had

176 The Chevalier D^Eon.

neglefted nothing to ensure the work creating a sensation.

It fell like a bomb in the enemy's camp. In London everybody was amazed; and Horace Walpole, having purchased a large number of copies, sent them flying over Europe to Lord Hertford, Sir Horace Mann, and others. Con- sternation prevailed at Versailles, and the Well- Beloved, whilst lamenting his recent ina£tion, must have had serious misgivings as to D'Eon's next move. So far, his Majesty's secrets had not been mentioned, but the Chevalier threatened a second work, and who could tell what that might not contain?

D*lEon was indeed now playing a desperate game. Deprived of his rank and emoluments, he was resorting to something very like black- mailing — the favourite taftics of those who possess a secret. We are no longer in presence of the young dodor of civil and canon law, so anxious to win renown by penning elegant literary e£Fusions; no longer in presence of the diplomatic secretary who strove so earnestly to reconcile France and Russia, the zealous mes- senger who flew to Paris with important tidings, careless alike of fatigue and broken limbs. All notion of discipline has faded from the mind of this whilom captain of dragoons, who, soured and angered by disappointment, injustice, and negledt, has determined to give back blow for blow, to oppose cunning to cunning, and abuse to abuse. As for those by whom he

The Chevalier D'Eon. 177

considers himself abandoned, he is resolved to make them realize that he has it in his power to expose them to the world, and if they should not come to his help, expose them he will.

In England at this period the Peace of Paris was still the subje£fc of much angry discussion. The assertions that Lord Bute, the Princess of Wales, and many others had been bribed by France had re-echoed all over the country. It was suspedted that D'Eon possessed papers which would fully confirm the popular reports. In fadt, it was imagined that these were the very documents that Guerchy was so anxious to secure, and this idea was no doubt confirmed by the publication of the " Lettres, M^moires et Negociations," which D*Eon heralded forth as being but a first instalment— a sample, as it were — of the documents he possessed. As everybody knew him to be in needy circum- stances, it is not surprising that overtures should have been made to him. We are told, indeed, that at this jun<3ure he was offered ^20,000 for his papers,^ and he appears to have been sorely tempted, for, on March 23, 1764 — a few days after the issue of his book — ^we find him writing to Tercier: "The leaders of the English Opposition have offered me any money I may require on condition that I deliver to them my papers and letters. . • • You must feel how repugnant such an expedient must be

• Tclfer.

N

178 The Chevalier D^Eon.

to me, and yet if I am forsaken what would you have me do? • . . If I am entirely for- saken, and if between now and Easter Sunday I do not receive a promise, signed by the King or by Count de Broglie, to the efFed that reparation will be made to me for all the ills that I have endured at the hands of M. de Guerchy, then I declare to you formally I shall lose all hope; and in forcing me to embrace the cause of the King of England . . . you must make up your mind to a war at no distant period; . . . this war will be inevitable."

D'Eon confided this letter to a certain Colonel Nardin, who had been assisting La Rozicre in surveying the English coast and the roads leading through Kent to London. Nardin carried the letter to France, and four days later D*Eon again wrote to Tercier, — somewhat apologetically with respedt to the "Lettres, M^moires et N6gociations," but in the same warning strain concerning the secret papers. He no longer spoke of taking money, it is true, but he had heard, he said, that the English ministers had been deliberating upon the means to be employed for arresting him and handing him over to France." However, " several members of the Opposition sent daily to see whether he were safe, and at the first attempt at violence against him the French embassy and all it contained would be torn to pieces by what is known in England as ^ the mob.* " And he concluded by saying: " If I

The Chevalier D'Eon. 179

am once taken^ and the King affords no relief, I shall no longer consider myself bound to keep the secret, but shall be obliged, thus driven to extremities, to justify my condud."

This second letter completed the first one, and was well calculated to make Louis XV. feel uncomfortable. D'Eon on the one hand threatened to sell his secret papers to the English Opposition if he remained free, and on the other hand he declared that he would make full revelations if he were arrested. For three months the Well-Beloved had been dilly- dallying with regard to Broglie*s proposal that a conciliatory envoy should be sent to D'Eon. Further delay in approaching him was cal- culated to ruin everything; and even if no positive arrangement were entered into, it was at least advisable that someone should be sent to London to beguile him with promises and fine words for the purpose of gaining time. It happened at this juncture that, at the suggestion of the Duke de Choiseul, who was anxious to conciliate the army, both Marshal and Count de Broglie were suddenly recalled from exile. The King was thus able to secure the imme- diate advice of his secret counsellor; and, early in April, the Chevalier de Nort, one of Broglie s secretaries, set out for London with full instruc- tions from his master and Tercier. The Duke de Praslin, about the same time, despatched an agent of his own to England with orders " to take D'Eon alive above everything," it being

i8o The Chevalier D^Eon.

the minister's desire to shut the Chevalier up in the Bastille.

Here for a moment one may turn aside to point out how the King's worries concerning D'Eon serve to explain a curious little point in French history. At the end of March, 1764, the Marchioness de Pompadour was dying; on April 1 5, just as the Chevalier de Nort had set out for England, she expired. The King, we are told, gave no signs of being afFedted by her death. As the hearse carrying her remains set out from the palace of Versailles amid the pouring rain, his Majesty simply remarked: " The Marchioness won't have nne weather for her journey." Various surmises have been in- dulged in to account for the indifference which the Well-Beloved displayed at the demise of his favourite. Many writers have taken it as an example of the natural callousness of a faineant king, though the notion that such a perpetual intriguer as Louis was z faineant is absurd. The real explanation — amply corro- borated by the secret correspondence — is that the King was so alarmed concerning D'Eon and his precious papers, so apprehensive of revelations which might lead, at an extremely inauspicious moment for France, to war witn Great Britain, that he could give his mind to nothing else.

D'Eon had informed Tercier that he would wait for "reparation" until Easter Sunday, and no longer; and when on Good Friday

The Chevalier D'Eon. i8i

morning he saw M. dc Nort enter his rooms in Brewer Street, he doubtless imagined that he had won the fight, and would be able to didtate his own conditions. He already knew of the recall of the Broglies and the death of Madame de Pompadour, and fancied that quite a court revolution had taken place at Versailles, whereas in reality Choiseul's power remained unshaken. And Choiseul, skilled in all the arts of decep- tion, stood behind Praslin, who was indeed little more than a tool in his cousin's hands. D'Eon, singularly enough, seems to have been ignorant of this, for he would often write to Choiseul and complain to him of Praslin; and Choiseul, who always had fair words on his lips and trickery in his heart, would write back sympathizing with the Chevalier and suggesting that he should return to France, where he (Choiseul) would give him employ- ment in the army. Fortunately for D*Eon he did not accept this proposal, for Choiseul can have had no other objedt than to draw him over to France with the objedt of satisfying Praslin's rancour. Knowing as we do what were the relations between Choiseul and Pras- lin, it is quite certain that one word from the former to the latter would have sufficed to rid D'Eon of all persecution. That word, however, was never spoken; so it is evident that the kind language which Choiseul used in writing to D'Eon was merely intended as a lure. However, D*Eon received M. de Nort with

1 82 The Chevalier URon.

a smiling face, and so pleased was he with the special envoy's fine words and a small sum of money sent to him by Tercier at the King's com- mandy that, neglefting to read an important mis- sive from the Count de Broglie delivered to him at the same time, he at once sat down to write a letter of fulsome gratitude to Louis XV. But his delight was of brief duration, for when he turned to peruse Broglie's letter he found that he was simply required to surrender all the papers he held in exchange for a sum of money (amount not specified), whilst no provi- sion whatever was made for his future.

He forthwith pointed out to M. de Nort that he could not surrender his papers on these terms, and added that he was compelled to keep them for a time in any case, since Guerchy, on the strength of the language used in the introduction to the "Lettres, Mcmoires et N^gociations," had now instituted proceedings against him for libel, and he (D'Eon) could not part with any document that was of a nature to justify the statements made in his book.

M. de Nort reported this answer to the Count de Broglie, who endeavoured to solve the difficulty by soliciting the King to instru6t Guerchy to relinquish the proceedings he had taken. But Louis XV. would not adopt this course, and indeed a cessation of proceedings on Guerchy's part would have been construed by everybody in England as an admission that D'Eon's assertions concerning him were true.

The Chevalier D^Eon. 183

Meantime, the Chevalier, on his side becoming bolder and bolder, informed M. de Nort that nothing in the world would induce him to surrender the papers so long as Count de Guerchy should remain ambassador in England. It is asserted that D'Eon was at this period offered ^^40,000 for his papers by the leaders of the English Opposition,* who were still busily agitating the country respedting the Treaty of Paris; and if this be true, one can well understand his persistence in his pretensions.

Not content with prosecuting D*Eon for libel, Guerchy had given Goudard, his favourite literary hack, a score of guineas to write a reply to the " Lettres, M^moires et N^gociations, ' and Goudard having penned a furious diatribe against the Chevalier, received a sound caning from him one afternoon in the Green Park. Meanwhile fresh efforts were being made to kidnap D'Eon, and send him over to France on board a merchant vessel; and we find Guerchy writing to Praslin to ask him if he would prefer to have the Chevalier taken "before the trial for libel or after- wards."* D'Eon on his side wrote to Lords Mansfield, Bute, and Temple, calling their attention to the designs on his person, and soliciting their advice. They do not appear to have answered him, however. Pitt — the elder

• Tclfer, p. 152.

' Aiiaires Etrangeres — Guerchy. June 23, 1764.

184 T^he Chevalier D^Eon.

one, of course — to whom he also wrote, responded in French (execrable French, by the way) to the effect that in such delicate circumstances he could only " lament a situation concerning which it was not possible for him to oflFer any opinion "—a truly diplomatic reply!

To a friend in Pans the Chevalier about this time sent some account of the precautions which he had taken for his personal safety. He mentioned that he had spies of his own about town, who had frightened the two leaders of the kidnapping party so effeftually that they no longer dared to show themselves.

• • We have sham fights every day," added

D'Eon, " and at night-^time we make reconnais- sances at ^ Renela ' (Ranelagh) or at ' Phaksal ' (Vauxhall). I am always at the head of my little force." ^ Walpole mentions having seen the " poor lunatic " (as he calls the Chevalier) at the opera, when '^ he looked as if he had come from Bedlam." He was armed to the teeth, and threatened that if any people attempted to lay hands on him he would either shoot them dead or shoot himself. " And I believe him quite capable of carrying out his threat," wrote Walpole, who at this period was remarkably friendly with Guerchy, "an agreeable man," who was " civil and good-natured," who ^* pleased much," and " although no clerk " was

• ' far from being contemptible."

• Gaillardet, " Pieces Justificatives," No. 6, The spelling

of Vauxhall is quite a record in ^^ English as she is wrote."

The Chevalier D'Eon. 185

Whatever Walpole may have thought of Guerchy, with others the ambassador was most unpopular. This no doubt was mainly due to his position as the representative of a power which the vox popu/i so loudly accused of having bribed English statesmen, and also, in some measure, to his persecution of D'Eon. On George IIL*s birthday (June 4, 1764) a strange scene took place at the French embassy. Three constables who presented themselves there for the purpose of arresting one of Guerchy 's equerries for threatening to take a woman's life and fire a house, were assaulted by the ambassador's servants, whilst his ex- cellency in person declared that the constables were violating his privileges and angrily tore up the warrants they presented. Later on, when Guerchy went out, he was insulted in the streets, and tne embassy was attacked and a number of windows were broken by a party of Wilkites. According to D'Eon, Guerchy ac- cused him of having excited the mob on this occasion, " because," says the Chevalier, " the people rather liked me, and publicly drank my health and that of Wilkes."

Towards the end of June D'Eon received notice that the charge of libel preferred against him by the Count dc Guerchy would come on for hearing in the Court of King's Bench on July 9; whereupon he made an affidavit asking that the case might be postponed till next term, in order that he might produce four material

1 86 The Chevalier D'Eon.

witnesses, who, he asserted, had been expelled the country by order of the French ambassador. This application was refused^ however, ^^to the great astonishment of the public," says D'Eon, ^* and the indignation of all the barristers present." Accordingly, on July 9, the trial came on before Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, but the Chevalier did not enter an appearance. From a letter he wrote to a friend it appears that he had decided to absent himself, as in the time allowed him it was impossible for his counsel, who knew little or nothing of French, to master the six hundred pages of the incriminated ^^ Lettres, M(^moires et N^gociations." The case was none the less proceeded with, and D'Eon was found guilty, but the Lord Chief Justice had to postpone sentence, as the delinquent was not before him. The Chevalier had disappeared from Brewer Street, and his whereabouts could not be as- certained. For a time it seemed doubtful to the public whether he were really in hiding, or whether he had not at last been kidnapped by Guerchy's foreign hirelings.

X.

July, 1764 — June, 1765.

Vergyaccmo Guerchy of having plotted D'Eon'j Death — ihe Chevalier in Hiding — His Reconciliation with Vergy— -Improbability of the Charges against Guerchy — D £on challenges and denounce* the Ambassador — King Louis adopts a neutral Policy — Scandalous Result of a Letter to Lord Mansfield — Broglie's Plans frustrated — Arrest of his Secretary and D'&)n's Valet in France — A strange Farce at tnc Bastille — Broglie's Proposals to D'Eon — The Chevalier's " Disinterested- ness" — Indictment of Count de Guerchy — A true Bill against him — Depositions in the Case — The Condu^ of the Grand Jury explained — George III. grants a " nolle prosequi " — Termination of this scandalous Allair.

S" the midst of his contentions

with D'Eon, the Count de

Guerchy had found himself

confronted by another foe, that

same shady character, Treyssac

de Vergy, with whom D'Eon

had at one moment been so anxious to fight a

duel. For a short period Vergy had been in

the pay of Guerchy, who had employed him

to write some lampoons on D'Eon; but having

1 88 The Chevalier UEon.

been arrested iox debt at the instance of his landlord, and all his appeals for succour hav- ing been disregarded by the ambassador, he resolved to turn against the latter, and whilst lying in gaol (Dec, 1763) he wrote for publi- cation a ^'Lettre aux Fran9ais," in which Guerchy's proceedings towards D'Eon were virulently denounced.

Vergy was a disreputable individual, and in the course which he now adopted was certainly actuated less by a wish to befriend the innocent and punish the guilty than by a desire to extort money from the ambassador, to whom he sent some extracts from his " Lettre aux Fran9ais " whilst it was being prepared for press, with the intimation that it would soon be published unless eighty guineas were handed to his messenger, a petty attorney named Grojan. Guerchy, making a great show of indignation, brought the matter before Lord Halifax, who suggested that Vergy might be prosecuted for attempting to extort money by threats. How- ever, whilst the affair was being inquired into by the law officers of the crown, Vergy, through the assistance of some friends, obtained his release from prison, and persevering in his new course, began to pester the Duke de Choiseul with letters in which he formally accused the French ambassador of having plotted D'Eon*s death. Subsequently, more- over, he made depositions upon oath before two justices of the King's Bench, asserting

The Chevalier D^Eon. 189

that Guerchy had first tried to poison the Chevalier by causing opium to be given him in his wine while he was dining at the em- bassy on October 28, 1763, and that he had further solicited him (Vergy) to waylay and assassinate D'Eon.

These depositions naturally created a stir in London drawing-rooms, clubs, and coffee- houses, and, D'Eon having disappeared, the public may well have imagined that the murderous designs attributed to Guerchy had at last proved successful. But such was not the case. The Chevalier was simply hiding. For several weeks, it appears,* he secreted himself in the house of an elderly French procuress, named Dufour, who subsequently asserted that he had worn female attire whilst lodging with her — a circumstance which many people would explain by the surmise that he thus disguised himself the better to escape detection, but which, as will shortly be shown, gave rise to other suppositions of a very singular description.* How long D*Eon remained with La Dufour, and how long he continued wear- ing feminine attire, one cannot say. Certain it is, however, that after disappearing at the beginning of July he was discovered by Vergy during the ensuing September, where, we arc

^ Archives des Afiaires Etrangeres.

• It was, we believe, partly to justify his behaviour at this

time that D'Eon concocted the letter of 0£L 4, 1763 {antt^

P- 153)-

190 The Chevalier D'Eon.

not told, but at all events he was again wear- ing the garments of the male sex.

D*Eon was naturally surprised to see Vergy, who, presenting himself ex abrupto^ declared, with apparent frankness, that he had come to confess his faults and make atonement. Hav- ing given some account of his parentage and his earlier years, describing himself as an advo- cate of the Bordeaux parliament, and relating that after squandering his own and his wife's fortune he had tried his hand at literature, and had secured the patronage of the profligate Count d'Argental, a great friend of the Duke de Praslin, he went on to say that Argental had endeavoured to obtain him employment as secretary to the Count de Guerchy, and that the matter had been virtually arranged on the understanding that he (Vergy) should serve the ambassador " as readily with his sword as with his pen." He had thereupon started for Eng- land, with instru£tions to assist in encom- passing the ruin of D*Eon, and through him of both the Marshal and Count de Broglie. He was to spread reports injurious to the Chevalier's reputation, to pick a quarrel with him, if possible, and to write a pamphlet to his prejudice." He asserted, however, that he had only undertaken these duties because he was literally starving and had no other means of earning a living. " At five-and-twenty," he said to D'Eon, '* the stomach is an integral part of the conscience, with a deliberative voice in

The Chevalier D^Eon. 191

the internal tribunal, and when to its sharp cry the bowels add a hollow groan of their own, the united voices of both organs generally exercise a preponderant influence on the mind. '

Nevertheless, according to Vergy's assertions, upon Guerchy's arrival in London he had been seized with qualms of conscience, and had in- tended to warn D'Eon of what threatened him, for which reason indeed he had remarked on meeting him at the embassy: "You do not know the fate that awaits you in France." Had the Chevalier then said but one encou- raging conciliatory word to him he would have confessed everything. Unfortunately, however, events had taken another course.

Vergy seems to have said nothing about the libellous pamphlet which, in spite of his con- scientious scruples, he had written against D'Eon at Guerchy's bidding; or about the information which he had formerly laid against him at Bow Street for a contemplated breach of the peace. He doubtless found it more convenient to pass over these trifling matters, and proceeded to relate that Guerchy had, in the first instance, tried to poison D'Eon, and, having failed in that attempt, had offered him (Vergy) " a purse with one hand and a dagger with the other," in the hope that he would consent to waylay and assassinate the Chevalier. Then, after giving some account of his arrest for debt, Vergy concluded by saying: "The ambassador has dared to summon you before

192 The Chevalier D*Eon.

the law-courts. Make any use you please of the disclosures I have now made to you. I am at your service. I will admit my own faults, and prove your innocence in London, Paris, or Versailles. . . . Happy indeed shall I be to make reparation by some little good for a part of the injury I have done you."

D'Eon readily embraced this offer; but it must be pointed out that Vergy could adduce no evidence of value in support of his state- ments, which, by themselves, were certainly not entitled to much credit. The Chevalier himself had previously recorded in print * that Vergy was known to the Paris police as a sharper, that he had been prosecuted for swindling by a Parisian bookseller named Robin, and had further been turned out of the houses of those whom he asserted to be his protestors — the Count d*Argental and the Mar^chale de Villcroy. A sober-minded per- son would therefore have thought twice before placing any reliance on the word of such a man, however profuse his offers of help and his pro- testations of repentance; but D'Eon was not a sober-minded person, he was all fire and fiiry, eager above all things to avenge himself on Guerchy, by whom he had been virtually ruined. It must be acknowledged, also, that Guerchy had undoubtedly endeavoured to kid- nap the Chevalier, and in those days French

• " A Letter to His Excellency C. L. F. Regnier, Count

de Guerchy,^ London, 1763.

The Chevalier D^Eon. 193

officials did not hesitate at such trifles as a man's life when they had the orders of those in power to rid them of any compromising or dangerous individual.

But certainly neither Louis XV. nor Praslin had ever ordered D'Eon's murder. D'Eon himself would have scouted any such assump- tion with regard to the King; and as for Praslin, we know that he desired above all things to take D'Eon alive in order that he might extort from him full particulars of his intrigues; for the Chevalier's papers, couched in cipher or figurative language, would be of little use to him unless he should also have the Chevalier's person under lock and key.

If Guerchy, therefore, had really plotted to take D'Eon's life it must have been on his own account; but great as was his resentment against the Chevalier, it was certainly not of such a character as to prompt him to commit murder. Moreover, the ambassador was ac- cused of having tried to poison D'Eon prior to the publication of those " Lettres, M6moires et N^gociations " which had so incensed him — prior to the decisive rupture when, although there was a violent quarrel between them, Guerchy at all events yet had hopes that he should prevail on D'Eon to surrender his papers and return quietly to France. If Guerchy was guilty, therefore, of the charges brought against him, he must have been a£tuated by sheer wickedness, and there is

o

194- T^he Chevalier D^Eon.

nothing whatever to indicate that such was the case.* Besides, his instrudtions from Pras- lin were to get D'Eon over to France alive, either by persuasion or force; and it is difficult to imagine that he should have allowed his private resentment to carry him away so far as to a6l in dire6t opposition to his orders.

With reference to the alleged attempt at poisoning, it is no doubt correct that D'Eon was taken ill after dining at the embassy on Oftober 28, 1763, but he himself admits that Monin complained to him of similar, though less violent symptoms. He acknowledges also that Guerchy told him that the Marquis de Blosset and Count d'Allonville had felt un- well, and this having been said in the presence of those gentlemen, and without any protest on their part, may be assumed to be accurate. Otherwise they and Monin, whom D*Eon in his letters calls his "old friend," must have been in league with Guerchy to take the Chevalier's life. Guerchy, it will be remem- bered, was not present at the dinner in question; and, according to D'Eon's first account, it was

^ D'Eon, in one of his numerous effusions, tries to prove that Guerchy was naturally wicked because an ancestor of his was sentenced to death (but pardoned) for rebellion in the reign of Charles VIII. He repeatedly stated, more- over, that Guerchy's father, an officer of mousquetaires, had killed a man in a night brawl in Paris, and had only been saved from the scaffold by the intercession of Madame de Maintenon. We have searched many records, but have failed to find any trace of this affair.

The Chevalier D^Eon. 195

the ambassador's physician who drugged the wine, with the object of sending him to sleep, in order that he might be kidnapped. When, however, the breach between the Chevalier and the ambassador had become irreparable, we find the drugging suddenly changed into poisoning, and Guerchy's butler formally im- plicated in the charge on the strength of Vergy's unsupported assertions.

As D'Eon had noised his illness abroad, there is nothing surprising in Vergy coming to him and saying, " You were poisoned." Vergy, for his own purposes, no doubt, wished to excite D'Eon against Guerchy, and adopted the taftics best suited to that end. The story of the purse and the dagger was related with the same design. On the other hand, the trite but true axiom that the