The appointment of minister plenipotentiary, for which I never asked, has certainly not turned my head, thanks to a little philosophy; it has only involved me in heavier expenses, as the enclosed account testifies. When I was secretary of embassy I went about plainly dressed in my uniform and cambric cuffs; now, much against my will, I must wear a few decent clothes and a little lace. If the King’s affairs are in a bad state, mine are going from bad to worse. Your kindness and your sense of justice will not suffer this. Soon I shall complete ten years’ service as a diplomatist, without having become richer or more proud. Many promises have been made to me, but promises and promisers have vanished. Till now I have sown much and reaped little. When the happy time comes for my release from politics, I shall be obliged to abscond and become bankrupt, unless you are humane enough to help me with some additional donation. The more zealously and courageously I work, the poorer I become: my youth is passing away, and I have nothing left but bad health, which is growing worse every day, and debts to the amount of over twenty thousand livres. These various little debts have been worrying me for so long that my mental capacities are completely absorbed and are no longer free, as I should wish, to serve the King’s interests. The time of reckoning appearing to be imminent, I entreat you to decide upon my present and future prospects, and upon the favours I am to expect from your sense of justice and kind-heartedness.... The Duc de Praslin was all the less inclined to grant the request as he had received at the same time serious complaints against d’Eon from the Comte de Guerchy. Not satisfied with incurring debts, the Chevalier had already spent a part of the future ambassador’s stipend. He regarded these emoluments as his own, for he would not admit that after being in the first rank he was once more in a subordinate position, that “he should descend from peer to peasant.” He persisted with Burgundian tenacity in his fanciful dream of gaining the title as well as the functions of ambassador, and of succeeding his former chief, Nivernais, in London. In spite of the warnings which he received from every quarter, and of the counsels of moderation which his best-informed and most devoted patrons, Sainte-Foy, the chief secretary of the Foreign Office, and the Duc de Nivernais himself, continually urged upon him, he would not yield and ended by receiving a well-deserved reproof from the Duc de Praslin: