Whilst D’Eon was receiving from the King of France the highest marks of his royal confidence and favour, ministers at Versailles were officially, but clandestinely, seeking to secure his person; and so late as November 1765, de Praslin, in conversation with the Duke of Richmond, the British ambassador, remonstrated upon England not surrendering the Chevalier to whom the Christian King had a hundred times a greater right, than had England to John Rice, ‘a thief of the Publics,’[231] who was given up by France. Ever watchful, D’Eon was perfectly conscious of all that was passing. ‘These poor ministers have read somewhere, and have heard it said, that Cardinal Richelieu had caused several members of his ministry to be assassinated and poisoned, and yet, notwithstanding, posterity considered him a great man. They have imagined they might do likewise, and also be taken for great men, but one cannot deceive one’s self, there being nothing in common between them but the dagger and poison?’[232] [Sidenote: A GRUMBLING FRENCH MINISTER.] De Guerchy having quitted England ‘on leave,’ Durand succeeded him as minister plenipotentiary, by royal warrant dated June 8. One of the King’s old correspondents on secret service, Durand was well known to D’Eon, with whom he had had frequent intercourse in former days. Recalled from Poland by the Duke de Choiseul, who suspected him of being upon intimate terms with the Count de Broglio, we now see him minister in England, specially charged, though secretly, by the King, as had been de la Rosière, Nardin, and Nort, to watch over and protect D’Eon. De Guerchy was virtually superseded. Durand was not long in coming to terms with D’Eon, upon whom he prevailed to give up that most compromising of all papers, so far as the King was personally concerned—His Majesty’s secret instructions of June 3, 1763,[233] and for which the Chevalier received, in exchange, the royal warrant granting him an annual pension. Durand’s written report was as follows:— ‘In compliance with the orders of the King, which I hold, M. D’Eon, late minister plenipotentiary from France at this court, has this day delivered into my own hands the private and secret order of the King, written and signed with his own hand, and dated June 3, 1763, addressed to the Sieur D’Eon. I further certify that the said order has been given to me in good condition, folded in a parchment cover addressed to his Majesty, and that it was shown to me enclosed and cemented within a brick adapted for the purpose, removed from the walls of the cellar and afterwards replaced.’ CHAPTER XI. D’Eon continues in the royal confidence—Secret correspondence again in peril—D’Eon’s mother persecuted—De Guerchy’s death—D’Eon’s last letter to him—De Vergy’s dying deposition—His will—D’Eon as secret correspondent—His public protest—The Musgrave scandal.