This publication, in the style of the Paris _Colporteur_, was called _Le Gazetier Cuirassé_, and displayed on the title-page a print “representing the gazetteer in the uniform of a hussar, with a little pointed cap on his head, and a face expressive of sardonic laughter, aiming to right and left the cannons, bombshells, and all the artillery which surround him.” This dishonest livelihood, however, did not satisfy Morande, who, not content with demanding sums of money directly from the persons whom it was his intention to blackmail, produced more voluminous works of an equally depraved nature. Well and promptly informed by needy correspondents whom he employed in France, he imparted the latest news from Versailles to his acquaintances in London. “Madame du Barry,” he wrote in one of his bulletins, “has given balls to the high nobility during the carnival, and bodyguards have been posted in all the avenues, just as at the residence of Madame la Dauphine. Neither the young Prince nor the Princesses were present, but the Duc de Chartres and the Comte de la Marche made their appearance for a moment with the King. Mimi opened the ball with the Prince de Chimay. Madame du B—— was mightily disappointed to see so few guests. As for me, they are hanging me, burning me, erecting altars to me in Paris; in short, they are as eager to buy my book as I am to sell it.” Indeed, M. des Cars was actively engaged in suppressing the scandal, and he had induced the Comte de Broglie to write to d’Eon instructing him to make terms with the blackmailer. D’Eon’s reply was not long in coming: You could not have recourse to anybody more able to assist and bring to a satisfactory conclusion the affair you have mentioned to me, M. Morande being a countryman of mine, who boasts of being connected with a branch of my family in Burgundy. As soon as he arrived in London, three years ago, he wrote to me that he was a countryman of mine, and that he wished to see me and make my acquaintance. For two years I refused for very good reasons. He has so frequently called since, that I have occasionally received him rather than be annoyed by a young man of an exceedingly turbulent and impetuous disposition.... He has married his landlady’s daughter, who was in the habit of attending to his room. (They have two children, and live on good terms together.) He is a man who blackmailed several rich people in Paris by means of his pen, and has libelled the Comte de Laraguais in the grossest possible manner. The King of England (himself so frequently attacked in the papers) asked the Count, with reference to this affair, what he thought of the liberty of the English press. “I have nothing to complain of, Sire,” he replied, “it treats me like a king.”