In spite of the alluring terms of this letter, d’Eon was not tempted to relinquish the barren and interminable contest which he had undertaken against his ambassador, in order to seek again, on real battlefields, successes worthier of his brilliant past. Fully aware of the reception which awaited him in France, he limited himself to declining the Duc de Choiseul’s proposals respectfully and gratefully. He was determined not to quit London, where every citizen’s residence was protected so effectually by law. Such a safeguard was indeed calculated to astonish a Frenchman of the eighteenth century, and de Guerchy was not yet accustomed to it. So unused was he to English customs that he could not save his government from an unpleasant miscalculation. Hardly had he received the King’s further instructions than he hastened to submit to the English ministers the demand for extradition transmitted to him by the Duc de Praslin. However great their desire to deliver the unfortunate ambassador out of his embarrassments, the English ministers did not consider they were justified in coming, on their own initiative, to a decision so contrary to the laws and spirit of their country, and they referred the matter to the Privy Council. Guerchy made a second still more urgent application to the secretaries of state, but in vain; and the King of England only expressed to the ambassador “his regret at being unable to comply with the request of his cousin, the King of France, since the laws of his kingdom did not empower him to do so.” The defeat was the more mortifying for Guerchy as he had involved his government in these unskilful tactics, and he found but slight compensation in the formal discharge which the chamberlain of the King of England caused to be delivered to d’Eon: SIR,—The King your master has informed the King my master that you are no longer his Minister at the Court of St. James’, and has at the same time required of the King to forbid you the court, and I deeply regret to have to inform you that I have this morning received orders from the King my master to communicate to you his intentions on that point. I have the honour to be ... GOWER, Chamberlain to the King of England.