Together with this reply, Messrs. Le Sesne published another letter, in which they expressed their great gratitude to the “heroic Chevalière” for the invaluable patronage which she deigned to confer upon them, and declared that they could not find a better way of showing their appreciation than by submitting to Mademoiselle d’Eon the choice of the captain, officers and volunteers of the frigate which was to bear her name. This letter was followed by another reply from d’Eon, stamped with the humility that befits a hero. I have to answer the last letter with which you honoured me on December 4. Had I foreseen the consequences that resulted from the reply which I thought it my duty to give to your flattering request that I should name one of your frigates, I would carefully have refrained from accepting such an honour. The praise which that compliance causes you to bestow upon me, gives an idea of my talents and my merit which is quite at variance with the opinion I ought to have of them. As to the choice of the captain, the officers, and the volunteers who are anxious to distinguish themselves on the vessel which you are fitting out, I believe, Gentlemen, that once a career so glorious and so useful to the government is open to our soldiers and sailors, they will come in crowds to risk their fortunes and their lives for the right of pursuing it. I therefore consider this choice much more difficult on account of the great number of competitors than on account of their courage and merit, such qualities being natural to all French soldiers, whom I am better able to applaud and imitate than I am to criticise. There was, indeed, no lack of men in quest of adventures who applied for posts on the _Chevalière d’Eon_. D’Eon’s papers include numerous letters of application, and there was a rumour even that the Chevalière herself would embark on the vessel which was to bear her name. Unfortunately, the shareholders’ money did not flow into the offices of Messrs. Le Sesne and Co., Rue de Bailleul, at the same rate as the offers of service. An extract from the _Journal de Paris_, containing the letters exchanged between the shipowners and the Chevalière d’Eon, had been issued in form of a prospectus and addressed to all persons thought likely to take an interest in the matter. Even the vignette representing the _Chevalière d’Eon_ surrounded by the enemy’s vessels, and firing two broadsides at once, did not induce people to subscribe, and the undertaking had to be abandoned. Such a turn of affairs did not answer the purpose of those to whom d’Eon had already distributed appointments on the frigate. A certain “mestre de camp de dragons,” who signs only with his initial, and had been chosen to command the ship, wrote to him on July 14, 1781, from Granville, where he had gone to watch the preparations for the expedition: