The French ambassador having been advised that the language employed in the Introduction to the ‘Lettres, Mémoires,’ &c. was libellous, immediately instituted proceedings against D’Eon, in which he was supported by the whole diplomatic corps in London.[181] The trial[182] was pending, and D’Eon, deserted and friendless, was careful to keep himself armed at all points, so far as lay in his power, against the coming struggle. He was satisfied that, provided he had custody of the papers, he was comparatively safe from any very great harm. Nort had brought to him no promise of protection, at a time that his liberty was in hourly peril; he should therefore continue to keep the papers until security of his person was guaranteed to him. Finding it impossible to treat with the Chevalier, Nort returned to Paris from his bootless errand, defeated and empty-handed. ‘Were you in my place,’ wrote D’Eon to de Broglio, ‘you would not do otherwise ... nothing in the world will induce me to give up these papers, so long as M. de Guerchy is ambassador in England. Should his Majesty determine upon appointing you, Monsieur le Comte, or the marshal, as ambassador, I can truly assert that considering the marshal’s great reputation in England, the affairs of France would at once take an entirely new direction. The action against me would break down, I should surrender my papers, and all would be well.’[183] Apart from his action for libel, the ambassador caused yet another pamphlet to be written and published by Goudard[184] (who wrote, says D’Eon, _pro fame_ rather than _pro fama_), a vicious criticism on the volume of ‘Lettres, Mémoires,’ &c. The Chevalier ‘would not take the trouble to reply to this senseless rather than discriminating disquisition on his book, but availed himself of the opportunity afforded him on Easter Day, 1764, in chancing to meet Goudard in the Green Park, St. James’, to give him a sound caning in the presence of several respectable witnesses, to which the mercenary scribe never made any answer;’ and Goudard having boasted in a coffee-house that he had completely rebutted every argument advanced in the work, D’Eon gave out that since he had thus proved the vigorous nature of his jaw, he should borrow that ass’s jaw whenever he would have to combat _des Philistins des Guerchiens et des chiens de Guerchy_.[185]