It is strange to find d’Eon claiming, in July 1771, so energetically (for it was the last time that he did so without ambiguity) his real sex. From that moment he began to entertain the idea of the audacious farce which he only decided to enact some time later, and the plot of which was suggested by his contemporaries themselves. His resolution to transform himself into a woman was formed between the months of July 1771 and April 1772. If he still abstained for over a year from avowing his supposed sex to his protectors, if he still hesitated to make his transformation public, he proved more communicative with a friend, who informed the secret minister, and so indirectly the King. D’Eon first confided in Drouet, secretary to the Comte de Broglie, who happened to be in London at the time. The latter had not omitted to rally d’Eon on the subject of the sex which was already being ascribed to him in Paris also, whereupon d’Eon exclaimed, and, to his interlocutor’s profound astonishment, asserted that he really was a woman. His parents, he said, misled at his birth by doubtful appearances, and being particularly anxious, as in every noble family, to have a male heir, had compelled him to assume a sex other than that which nature had bestowed upon him. His disposition and education had enabled him to play his part in public, and his talents to achieve a brilliant career. D’Eon exerted in support of this theory all the eloquence of which he was capable, and as Drouet remained incredulous he indulged in an unseemly comedy, which he revived at a later period in the presence of the adventurer Morande, and thereby managed entirely to convince the Comte de Broglie’s secretary. Upon his return Drouet at once reported the unexpected discovery to his master, who wrote to the King, in May 1772: I must not forget to inform your Majesty that the suspicions entertained on the sex of this extraordinary personage are well founded. The Sieur Drouet, whom I had ordered to do his best to verify them, has assured me, since his return, that he has succeeded, and that he is able to certify ... that the Sieur d’Eon is a woman and nothing but a woman, of whom he has all the attributes.... He begged the Sieur Drouet to keep the secret, justly observing that if discovered his occupation was gone.... May I entreat your Majesty to be pleased to permit that the confidence he has reposed in his friend be not betrayed, and that he will have no cause to regret what he has done....