The King took the matter coolly enough. He knew his man, and must have been full well persuaded that he could safely rely upon his loyalty and attachment to his person, and that there was consequently no immediate cause for alarm. When informed for the first time of the tempting offers made to the Chevalier in England, he merely said: ‘I do not believe that D’Eon will become an Englishman, for he has nothing to gain from the ministry, and what will he do if he joins the opposition? Send him two hundred ducats ...’ and then he wrote word to Tercier, ‘... I have nothing to say as regards the Sieur D’Eon. I doubt that we should have war, no matter what he were to say; but we must prevent such an exposure.’ Still, as if impressed with the obvious necessity for being wise in time, his Majesty added, ‘I approve of the despatch of the Sieur de Nort; make every necessary arrangement accordingly.’[173] [Sidenote: PUBLICATION OF ‘LETTRES,’ ETC., JUSTIFIED.] It is possible that Tercier, who was in the habit of keeping D’Eon informed of all that was passing at Court, so far as he was concerned, had told him before their correspondence was interrupted that the King ‘did not at all care to see the “Mémoires” in print.’[174] At any rate, in a second letter in which he pressed his case, and which quickly followed the first, we find the Chevalier offering some passing words of explanation on the course he had pursued. ‘London, March 27, 1764.[175] ‘Sir,—I hope that M. Nardin, whom I despatched on the morning of the 23rd to rejoin his friend La Rosière, and to cause to be remitted to you through him a very urgent letter from myself, is actually with you, and in a position to relate to La Rosière all that has occurred here during the last four months. The Count de Guerchy having thought proper to publish a lying apology for his conduct, or what is rather a libel against myself, full of wickedness and slander, I patiently waited awhile, and was then obliged to reply to it by unanswerable statements and letters. I have consequently published what I had to say, and have expressly made a bulky volume of it, that the project of our great secret affair may be the more completely screened.