I have written the above in compliance with the King’s orders. Let me add that the safe conduct with which you have been supplied suffices, so that you may now do as you please. If you decide upon pursuing a wise course, I will congratulate you; otherwise I shall only be able to pity you for not responding to the kind master who offers you a helping hand. Set your mind at rest, because when in France you will be able to communicate with me directly, without the aid of any intermediary. D’Eon, however, did not wish to leave England without endeavouring to put an end to the wagers which were being transacted on his sex. He brought an action before Lord Mansfield for the annulment of those disgraceful contracts; but being non-suited by a judgment which considered him to be a woman, since the King of France treated him as such, he contented himself with lodging an appeal, and hastened to return to his native land. IX RETURN OF A HEROINE D’Eon left London on August 13, 1777, and embarked for France the same night. However glad he was to return to his native land, and to revisit his home and his fertile, vine-bedecked Burgundy, his meditations cannot have been free from bitterness. Fifteen years had passed since his last journey: at that time he was the Duc de Nivernais’ “little d’Eon,” the Comte de Choiseul’s protégé, and was bringing to Versailles the ratifications of an important treaty. His wallet was not so full of state papers as his heart of dreams and expectations. Fortune smiled upon his ardent youth, bringing him brilliant rewards and giving him glimpses of a promising future. He had been well received at Versailles, honoured with the notice of Madame de Pompadour, and had returned to London wearing the Cross of Saint Louis on his breast. Shortly afterwards he was appointed minister plenipotentiary, and, thanks to a temporary vacancy, had represented his sovereign most pompously for two months at the embassy. He experienced at that time the rapture of triumph, but immediately afterwards all the rancour of a sudden disgrace. First came the harassing proceedings and the disdainful attitude of the Comte de Guerchy; then a struggle full of snares and subtilties; and finally the bold stroke of the action brought against his rival, and his exultation at the scandal caused by the condemnation of the ambassador of France. But it was a perilous victory fraught with danger, which had roused the indignation of Paris and Versailles, and occasioned his desertion by the King and, successively, by all his powerful friends. Struggles and vicissitudes had been his lot, reducing him by degrees to despair, and finally inciting him to that expedient—suggested by the tenacious idea of the public—long contemplated, and more than once rejected before being finally adopted.