Thus formed to succeed and never to offend, no man was more unfortunate than this ambassador; and it required not only dexterity, but the simplicity of his conduct, to surmount the most cruel and disagreeable ideas, first carelessly dropped, and then maliciously dispersed to his prejudice. The Duc de Nivernois had brought over and left here, to manage the affairs of their Court till M. de Guerchy’s arrival, the Chevalier D’Eon,[371] a military man, but who had been much employed in secret negotiations in Russia, for which he had been largely praised and very ill paid. The man had notable parts, great appearance of bashful merit, and learning enough to charm the superficial pedantry of the Duke, who had treated him with a fondness and intimacy that was ridiculous; and that, by being over kind, proved cruel: for having to serve him made D’Eon the courier of the peace, the Duke went farther, and procured him to be styled plenipotentiary during the absence of the ambassador. Vigils and vanity turned the poor young man’s head, which was by no means ballasted by a good heart. He mistook the road of fortune for fortune itself, and thought that highsounding titles lifted him to a level with those that conferred them. He forgot his modesty, and learned to talk loftily, or, as his masters thought, arrogantly. Under this unhappy intoxication he was thunderstruck with a declaration from the Duc de Nivernois, that on the ambassador’s arrival he was to sink into his pristine insignificance. To laugh this off, the Duke had familiarly pictured him to himself as sometimes a plenipotentiary and sometimes a tool of office. Other accidents concurred to aggravate this mortifying notice. He could obtain no arrears; and having made free with the remittances of his new master to give dignity to his own mission, he received a very humiliating reprimand from Monsieur de Guerchy. To crown all, Wilkes’s writings had breathed a spirit of independence into a poor brain born to crouch at a desk or to rise by servility. The ambassador was no sooner arrived, than the Chevalier behaved in a manner to which French ministers are little accustomed from their inferiors. At the same time D’Eon took it into his fancy that one Treyssac de Vergy,[372] an adventurer, was brought over to assassinate him; and on this belief broke out so outrageously against the Count after dinner at Lord Halifax’s, that the Earl, at M. de Guerchy’s desire, was obliged to send for Justice Fielding, and put D’Eon under arrest; and next day Vergy swore the peace[373] against him. The consequences of this adventure will be related hereafter.