Young O’Gorman being no longer able to support the brave marquis in his hand-to-hand fight with fortune, d’Eon wrote at once, inquiring anxiously about his return, and, thanks to M. de Sartine, obtained for him a commission as lieutenant. I am delighted to hear, Mademoiselle, that your nephew is included in the list of promotions in the navy; I congratulate you and am pleased to have been able to use my influence on his behalf. I have no doubt but that he will follow the good example set by his family. His elder brother’s success does not surprise me. They will both win distinction if they follow your advice. While d’Eon was making these successful efforts to launch his nephews in an honourable career, he contemplated quitting not only Tonnerre but France. The peace which had just been concluded with England enabled him to return to that country, where he had learned to love liberty. Besides, business of an urgent nature called him there: his extensive library and his valuable collection of weapons had remained in the hands of creditors whom he had been unable to indemnify, and who kept threatening to sell the property left as security. He appealed once more to the Comte de Vergennes for assistance, and, in spite of a peremptory refusal, persisted in his determination. In the middle of the summer of 1785 he returned to Paris, where the Duchesse de Montmorency offered him hospitality. He saw his old and faithful friends again—the Campans, the Fraguiers, the Tanlays, and made the acquaintance of a family destined for a brilliant future, being introduced to the Comtesse de Beauharnais, who soon became infatuated with him. There seems, at this time, to have been a revival of that same curiosity which he had formerly excited; but the urgent affairs which called him to London obliged him to disregard it, and on November 25, 1785, he left his native country, to which he never returned. XI LONDON AND THE END