‘... I declare that all which I have wrote and had printed at London in 1763 against the Chevalier D’Eon, then Minister Plenipotentiary of France to this court, I said it, wrote it, and had it printed only in consequence of the orders and money that were given to me by the Count de Guerchy, and in consequence of the plot formed at Paris in July 1763 between the Count de Guerchy and the Count d’Argental, and into which plot the said Count d’Argental drew me at Paris, and the above-said Count de Guerchy on his arrival at London. I declare and protest that I persist, and always will persist, in the truth of two depositions upon oath which I made and swore to, November 12, 1764, before Mr. Justice Wilmot, judge of the Court of King’s Bench of England, and November 27, 1764, before Mr. Justice Yates, also judge of the Court of King’s Bench of England, in which I have given a true and circumstantial account of the said plot. In consequence of which I earnestly beg the Chevalier D’Eon to forget, and to pardon me all the wrong which I have done to him, to his fortune, to himself, and to all his family, by being concerned in designs which were so hurtful to him—designs whose blackness I was ignorant of till the moment when the Count de Guerchy thought that the destruction of the Chevalier D’Eon ought not to be retarded any longer. The knowledge of this struck me with horror, restored me to myself, and made me undertake my defence and that of the Chevalier D’Eon....’ The Chevalier was firmly established as secret correspondent in London, performing his duty loyally and competently, even though frequently suffering from absolute want in consequence of his pension never being paid with regularity, and always in arrears; and had it not been for the hospitality of some of his English friends, foremost amongst whom was the Marquis of Tavistock,[238] he would have had to endure many a sad privation. The Duke de Broglie admits that D’Eon accomplished his task as correspondent and newsmonger with considerable ability, and that he was the precursor, if not actually the first of political reporters, and the most trustworthy and wittiest, if not the most useful, of correspondents. The contents of his letters, of which we give an example, verified as they may be by the history of the times, testify clearly enough to his qualities as a shrewd and correct observer, to the facility with which he obtained information and the unlimited sphere of his operations, and are probably unique, regard being had to the times in which he lived, in their resemblance to the efficient productions of our own modern newspaper reporters. [Sidenote: WHAT WAS PASSING IN LONDON.] _The Chevalier D’Eon to the Count de Broglio._ ‘London, March 15, 1766.