I am not informed that Morande is engaged on a scandalous account of the du Barry family; but I have very strong suspicions that such is the case. If it should be so, there is nobody in a better position than myself to negotiate for its suppression. He is very fond of his wife, and I undertake to persuade her to do anything I wish. I might even induce her to carry off the manuscript, but that might make a quarrel between them; in which case I should be compromised, and another, and more annoying affair would ensue. I believe that if Morande were offered eight hundred guineas he would be quite satisfied. I know that he is in want of money just now, and I will do my best to arrange for a smaller sum. But, sir, to tell you the truth, I should be delighted if the money were given to him by some other person, so that nobody will imagine that I have made a single guinea by such a transaction. If d’Eon despised this intriguer as much as he said he did, he had nevertheless always kept him on good terms, and was far more intimate with him than he wished it to appear. Morande was continually offering his services, whether to assist him in “some literary productions upon which he was engaged,” or to write, “with true Burgundian zeal, the biography of the enigmatical Chevalier.” D’Eon did not long remain indifferent to his incessant flattery and respectful assurances of devotion; he even entertained him, and supplied him with money. Morande, his insolvent debtor, and now his guest, soon confided to him his blackmailing projects. These d’Eon often urged him to give up, and if unsuccessfully, he was still in a position where money arrangements for that end could be easily made. The Comte de Broglie’s orders were in consequence promptly executed. Morande entered readily into terms of composition with “his countryman and companion in exile,” as he was pleased to call him. In a few days the bargain was made, d’Eon obtaining a promise written and signed by the hand of the Sieur Morande whereby the latter pledged himself “not to confide this negotiation to a single creature.” He promised besides “not only to refrain from printing his work against the family of the Marquis and the Comtesse du Barry, but also to sacrifice it entirely, and to deliver faithfully to the Chevalier d’Eon all the memoranda and copies, according to the stipulations of the agreement.”