He should not leave his house unless accompanied by some trustworthy person who spoke English and knew London well, and he should never think of going out at night.... Were any scoundrel sufficiently rash and villainous to dare to attack him, he should pitilessly shoot him or cut him in two with his sword.[195] That the Chevalier would have killed the first man who dared to lay hands upon him was no bombast on his part. He had written to Lord Mansfield, to the Earl of Bute, Mr. Pitt, and Earl Temple, to represent what were the designs of the French ambassador, the risk he hourly incurred of being kidnapped, and to seek their advice. He informed Lord Mansfield that he did not contract any debts, and avoided everything that could possibly lead him to an infringement of the laws. If, therefore, the law would appear to arm itself against his liberty, he must necessarily conclude it did so under a false pretence, being won over by the hatred of his enemies to deliver him to them. Such being the case, might he presume to ask his lordship, he who was the administrator of those laws which but interpreted primitive and natural laws, might he presume to inquire whether the necessity for self-defence did not place him in the position of repelling force by force? He ventured to think that his lordship’s heart contemplated such extreme measures with dread; but his equity, as was natural, would readily forgive any evils resulting therefrom. Such was his position, which he was obliged to bring to notice, in the hope that his lordship’s equity would offer some counsel that he was able to follow, and which should be equally in conformity with the requirements for his safety and with the laws of a country he loved and to which he owed so much. [Sidenote: TRIAL FOR LIBEL.] Towards the end of June, the Chevalier received notice of the charges upon which he was to be tried, and a summons to appear on July 9, that being the end of Trinity term. He made an affidavit asking for adjournment to another term, to enable him to produce four witnesses who had been expelled the country by orders of the French ambassador. His application was refused, and it being simply impossible for his counsel, who knew nothing of French, to read and digest in the course of eight days his book of six hundred pages in quarto, he made up his mind not to appear. The trial came on before Lord Chief Justice Mansfield at the King’s Bench bar on the day appointed, upon information filed against him by the King’s command, as author of a libel on the Count de Guerchy, and in default was found guilty.[196]