D’Eon was indeed thinking of following the advice of his correspondent, and leaving to posterity a detailed account of his exploits. The short sketch which he had written of his life on his return to France seemed to him insufficient, for it contained no reference to the chief event in his career, his contentions with de Guerchy, and also his secret mission in England; but the moment would have been ill-chosen, and might have furnished his enemies with fresh grounds for complaint. He therefore occupied himself with less dangerous works, planning a book on agriculture, and continually corresponding on this subject with M. de Buffon, who sent his works to him, discussed with him the merits of new treatises, and even consented to provide him with the documents that he lacked. The Marquis de Poncins submitted to him his new book on “agriculture and war,” saying that his glory would be complete “if to the approbation of the greatest of kings, were added that of the most illustrious woman who had ever figured in the annals of the world.” De Lalande and Cassini kept him informed of their discoveries. But such interesting correspondence being insufficient, in d’Eon’s opinion, “to dispel the stupefying fumes which one inhales in the country,” he worked assiduously at drawing up, with the help of M. de Palmus, the d’Eon family tree. He set about this with the smallest display of modesty, or rather with the fertile imagination of which he had already given so many proofs. After having exhausted the lineage of his immediate ancestors, who during the two preceding centuries had done little to prove their nobility in Burgundy, he unearthed far more remote forebears in Brittany, and even claimed alliance with the greatest houses of that province. Among those families a few had survived who did not seem very flattered at the relationship claimed by the illustrious Chevalière, and, indeed, declined his offer somewhat insistently. D’Eon consequently found himself engaged in a lengthy law-suit against M. de Kergado, on which occasion he distributed, as was his wont, a great many notes and pamphlets; but the case went against him. No sooner was this affair ended than d’Eon again began to feel, with increasing intensity, the burden of his idleness, of which he could not rid himself, and he was once more seized with the nostalgia of adventure. He tried to escape from the province to which he was confined by order of the King, as in a prison, and renewed his entreaties for permission to place at the disposal of America a sword which, though rusty, could still render useful service. As before, he met with the same unqualified refusal, and although his petition obtained for him the liberty of returning to Paris and Versailles, when he should desire to do so, he was much depressed by his failure. But he was not the man to own himself beaten, and though he was prevented fighting in person he was determined, nevertheless, to find means of distinguishing