I absolutely must speak to you about the amphibious creature who is neither male nor female, and is at the present moment, I am told, dressed as a woman, wearing the order of Saint Louis on her bodice, and enjoying, like yourself, a pension of 12,000 francs. Is all that quite true? I do not think you are likely to be one of his friends if he be of your own sex, nor one of his lovers if he be of the other. You are better able than anybody else to explain this mystery to me. He or she has sent me word by an Englishman of my acquaintance, that he or she is coming to Ferney, and I am much embarrassed in consequence. I entreat you to solve this enigma for me. D’Eon’s old comrades in the dragoons had not shown any particular incredulity, though he had led their life in the army, and they heartily welcomed the new heroine. The Baron de Bréget, at one time captain in d’Autichamp’s regiment, who had campaigned with him on the Rhine, asked him, a few months after the change, if he might “flatter himself that he still lived in the remembrance of his former brother-in-arms.” I only returned from the seat of war a week ago (he wrote), and I hasten to beg my good friend to allow me to call and pay my renewed homage. I most respectfully entreat Mademoiselle d’Eon to permit me frankly and heartily to embrace my old comrade in the regiment. In a letter written at the same time, the Comte de Chambry, another captain in the same regiment, bitterly reproached d’Eon for not having informed him of his return. I hope (he added) to find in the Chevalière d’Eon the same feelings of friendship as in the captain of dragoons.... As for me, in whatever form he appears, I shall always take the same interest in him, and am eager to assure him myself of the fact. The Marquis d’Autichamp, colonel and owner of the regiment in which d’Eon had served, had been one of the first to be apprised by the latter of his metamorphosis. It is but too true, my dear and gallant Colonel (the Chevalier had written), that, compelled to obey the command of the King and of the law, I have resumed my gown, for the edification of weak-minded persons who were scandalised by the great liberty taken by a young girl who, from prudence, had hidden and entrenched her virtue in your regiment of dragoons, in order that it might be better protected. My stratagem having been discovered, proved, and made public in a Court of Justice, people were surprised to find that I am still a woman. Consequently, the Court, as a reward or punishment, forces me to end my days as I began them, _en cornette_ (mob-cap). Whereupon the gallant colonel at once answered: