I renew, Monsieur, my entreaties that you will obtain the King’s permission for me to re-enter his service, and, as there is no fighting on land, that I be allowed to serve as a volunteer in the fleet of the Comte d’Orvilliers. I have managed to live in petticoats in time of peace, from a desire to obey the orders of the King and of his ministers, but I find it impossible to do so in time of war. I am sick with vexation, and ashamed to be in such a position when I might be serving my King and country with the zeal, the courage, and the experience that God and my own efforts have granted me. I am ashamed and distressed to be quietly living in Paris on the pension which the late King deigned to give me, when there is fighting to be done elsewhere. I am always ready to sacrifice both my pension and my life to his august grandson. I returned to France under your auspices, Monseigneur, I therefore confidently commend my present and future fate to your generous protection. _An Open Letter addressed by the Chevalière d’Eon to several Great Ladies at Court_ MADAME LA DUCHESSE,—Foreseeing that there will be less fighting on land this year than last, I earnestly entreat you to use your influence with the ministers, in favour of my petition (as stated in the enclosed copy of my letter to the Comte de Maurepas) to serve as a volunteer in the fleet of the Comte d’Orvilliers. Your name, Madame, is one to which military glory is familiar, and, as a woman, you must love the glory of our sex. I have striven to sustain that throughout the late war with Germany, and in negotiating at European courts during the last twenty-five years. There is nothing left for me to do but to fight at sea in the Royal Navy. I hope to acquit myself in such a way that you will not regret having fostered the good intention of one who has the honour to be, with profoundest respect, faithfully yours, LA CHEVALIÈRE D’EON. Tired of d’Eon’s eccentricities, weary of his attacks on Beaumarchais, and informed, moreover, that he had laid aside his female clothes, the ministers took strong measures. On Saturday, March 20, at an early hour and without any warning, Mademoiselle d’Eon was arrested at her house in the Rue de Noailles, by two officers of police, and invited to enter a coach, which started off at once. While the Sieur Clos, equerry and counsellor of the King, assisted by his clerk, searched his house in vain, d’Eon was being driven, by easy stages, towards Dijon Castle, where, by a royal decree, he remained for a whole month. X TONNERRE ONCE MORE