The French ambassador (at that time M. du Châtelet) was persuaded that d’Eon was a woman, and had not been slow to inform the King of the public report which was spread upon Princess Daschkow’s arrival in London. The princess, a niece of Woronzow, the Grand Chancellor of Russia, who had so effectually assisted the Empress Catherine II. to rid herself of her royal husband and to ascend the throne, was living in exile by the order of her sovereign. She had taken refuge in England and had not omitted to relate at court and in society that the Chevalier d’Eon, whom she knew well at St. Petersburg, and whose eccentricities were the topic of every conversation, had presented himself at the imperial palace attired as a woman, and that the Empress Elizabeth, deceived by the disguise, had admitted the young officer of dragoons into the circle of her maids of honour. This story, which confirmed the most credulous in their convictions and excited the curiosity of the sceptics, made the question of d’Eon’s sex the topic of the day, and led to a succession of those bets which were then so common in London, and for which the most trifling incident served as a pretext. Insurance policies were effected at Brooks’s and White’s, the quotations being posted up in the coffee-houses; and the memoranda which have been handed down to us show that the stakes frequently reached a thousand pounds. The news thus spread soon crossed the Channel, causing no less astonishment in Paris, where it was eagerly discussed in fashionable as well as official circles. Bachaumont, the literary and political chronicler of the time, states in his _Mémoires_, under date of September 25, 1771: “The reports which have been countenanced for several months to the effect that the Sieur d’Eon, that fiery person so celebrated for his adventures, is only a woman dressed in man’s clothing, the confidence with which the rumour has been received in England, and the wagers for and against amounting to over a hundred thousand pounds, have revived the attention of Paris about that strange man....” This testimony, which can easily be verified by the newspapers of the day, does not in the least exaggerate the interest with which the French public continued to follow d’Eon in his exploits. It would be difficult to believe such extravagant statements if the portraits of the hero and the most varied caricatures which were published at that time had not come down to us, and if traces of that curiosity were not to be found in the periodicals and magazines of the various capitals. Journalists, artists, song-writers and minor poets exercised their talents in his honour to their hearts’ content. Thus, among so many transient documents, we find in the _Almanach des Muses_ of 1771 the following verses, flattering in their credulity and kind in their irony:— À MADEMOISELLE * * * QUI S’ETAIT DÉGUISÉE EN HOMME