In that case the honour of having obtained official recognition for Douglas at St. Petersburg must be ascribed to another; but it will be seen that d’Eon undertook and conducted to a successful issue negotiations of so delicate a nature that no one can be said to suffer by comparison with him. The clever intermediary of the reconcilement of Louis XV. and Elizabeth appears to have been simply a worthy French merchant of St. Petersburg, called Michel, the care of whose own affairs did not prevent him from applying himself with as much ability as disinterestedness to those of his country. This Michel, a native of Rouen, was often obliged, in the course of business, to travel all the way from St. Petersburg to the town of his birth, and had already, in 1753, carried a private message to Versailles from the Empress, in which she expressed herself willing to forget the offensive behaviour of La Chétardie and to renew friendly relations with a monarch in whom she had never ceased to take great interest. Regard for a policy directed at that time against Russia had prevented Louis XV. from responding to these first overtures. Elizabeth did not risk a second rebuff; but she let it be understood that her personal sentiments had not changed. According to La Messelière, afterwards secretary of embassy in Russia to the Marquis de L’Hospital, a miniature-painter named Sompsoy, who was reproducing the Czarina’s features, learnt from her positive proof of her friendly sentiments. When he assured her, in the course of a sitting, that Louis XV., as well as his subjects, revered the name of Elizabeth he was rewarded by “a smile of which he caught the expression, and which made the success of the portrait.” La Messelière adds that the Empress, having thought the matter over, gave the artist “more sittings than he required for the painting,” and concluded by charging him to inform the King that French gentlemen might count on a warm reception at her court. Sompsoy discharged the commission faithfully, but it was thought undesirable to entrust him with the reply, for it would have necessitated at the same time the disclosure both of the King’s secret correspondence and of the Prince de Conti’s projects. It was agreed, therefore, that he should remain in Paris, and Douglas be sent to Russia in his place.