M. de Chalut, who enjoys good health and is in excellent spirits, notwithstanding his eighty-two years, was greatly touched by your kind offer, and would avail himself of it, if he did not know that the pictures he could sell are not worth half the money it would cost, in carriage and duty, to send them to England. The last time I saw him, he asked me to thank you again and pay his respects to you. No doubt you know that he has married his adopted daughter to M. Deville, who was formerly private secretary to the Comte de Vergennes and is now farmer-general, and that by the marriage settlement he gives him a hundred thousand crowns. M. de Lançon will tell you the rest, in case you are not acquainted with this event. I envy him, since he will see you in five or six days, and it follows that I should set out for England too were I not detained here by the necessity of supervising the illustrations and the printing of the work with which I have been entrusted for the Dauphin. I flatter myself that I shall not be forgotten in your libations. On Monday M. de Lançon and M. Le Vasseur dine with me, and it is to your health and that of the inestimable traveller that we shall quaff the champagne which I keep for great occasions. Sell your library at once, you have no need of it; your own ideas are better than those found in books. Try to get as much money as you can for it—money is necessary to those who make so noble a use of it as you do—and then come back to Paris where, no doubt, you will not find Princes of Wales to court you, but many persons who, without being heir-apparents, are none the less fully aware of your worth, and love you better than the best princes could. Excuse this scribble. My wish to avail myself of M. Lançon’s departure has made me write in a hurry and with a bad pen, but it is thoughtfully and with all my heart that I repeat to you the assurance of the feelings of esteem, admiration, attachment, and respect which I have dedicated to you for life, and with which I am your most humble obedient servant, THE ABBÉ SABATIER DE CASTRES. D’Eon was busy paying off his last creditors, and preparing for his return to France, when grave news reached London. The Revolution was beginning, that at least was the general opinion in England, for in France many of those destined to fall victims of the emancipation of the people were still under the greatest illusions about it. A curious letter addressed to d’Eon, July 2, 1789, by M. de Tanlay, parliamentary councillor, supplies proof of it.