‘The Most Christian King having, upon his Ambassador Count de Guerchy’s arrival here, sent to the Chevalier D’Eon de Beaumont, who had the character of Minister Plenipotentiary to this Court, his revocation from hence, with a letter addressed to his Britannic Majesty; and having been informed that M. D’Eon persisted in refusing to pay obedience to his orders, and to present the King his master’s letter; his said Most Christian Majesty therefore wrote a second letter to the King, and commanded his Ambassador to present the same immediately, which, having been accordingly done, his Majesty has been pleased to declare that the said M. D’Eon has no longer any character here, and has forbid him the Court.’[154] [Sidenote: THE COUNT DE BROGLIO’S ALARM.] Thus divested of his dignity, the Chevalier was also declared guilty of high treason, and all arrears of emoluments due to him were forfeited to the Crown—a pitiful situation naturally evoking very warm sympathy on the part of his old chief and well-wisher, the Count de Broglio, who himself had long been paying the penalty of his devotion to their mystery-loving royal master.[155] But, apart from personal considerations for D’Eon, the dangers to be apprehended from such limitless persecution were considerable, as the count took immediate occasion to remind the King. ‘It is an incontestable fact that the Sieur D’Eon is driven to despair; that without your Majesty’s favour he will meet with a miserable fate in France, and that he possesses sure means of making a large fortune in England.... If, in revenge for the bad treatment he is experiencing, and impelled by the necessity of obtaining a living, he should publish your Majesty’s instructions, which he holds, were he even to communicate them to English ministers, what might not be the unfortunate results? Should we not have to apprehend that the sacred person of your Majesty would be compromised, and that a declaration of war on the part of England would be inevitable?’ The count concluded his letter by enjoining that the ambassador should leave D’Eon in peace, and that one of his friends should be sent with an order signed by the King, requiring him, in warm-hearted terms, to return to France, with the special assurance that royal protection should not fail him.[156] The calamity which befell the Chevalier did not visit him alone; it encompassed his mother and other relatives, and even their dependants at home. He was tenderly attached to his only parent, upon whom he had long since settled his little property, yet to her solicitude and gentle warnings he replied with all the vehemence of his strong and stormy nature. [Sidenote: ‘TO MY DEAR MOTHER.’] _To Madame D’Eon de Beaumont, Tonnerre._ ‘London, December 30, 1763.