‘... I am grieved to hear, and even to read in the English papers, all the extraordinary reports that reach from Paris, London, and even St. Petersburg, on the uncertainty of my sex, and which gain ground in a country of enthusiasts such as this, and to such an extent, that policies of insurance for considerable sums are being publicly effected upon so indecent a subject, both at Court and in the city. I held my peace for a long time. My silence only served to increase suspicion and the number of insurances. I consequently repaired, last Saturday, to the Exchange and to the several neighbouring coffee-houses, where all kinds of insurances and stock-jobbing take place, and there, in uniform, walking-stick in hand, I obliged the money-broker Bird, who was the first to start one of these impudent insurances, to beg my pardon. Yielding the choice of weapons, I challenged to fight anybody who might consider himself the most incredulous, the bravest, or the most insolent of the entire assembly, and several thousands were present. All treated me with great courtesy, and in their amazement not one of those male adversaries, in this great city, dared either to cross sticks or to fight me, even though I remained in their midst from noon until two o’clock, to afford them ample time to decide amongst themselves. I took my leave, making my address generally known in the event of any one changing his mind. This is the way in which such people should be taken in hand and silenced. They are most insolent in the liberties they take, even with the greatest persons at Court, and the more reason with me, a private individual whom they know to be exiled from France, and lonely. Bird assured me, in the face of his apologies, that he and his colleagues were able to effect the most extraordinary insurances or wagers, even in regard to the royal family, except, in observance of an Act of Parliament, so far as concerned the life of the King, the Queen, and their children, and that he was employed by a great lady, whose name he refused to communicate, to effect an insurance on my sex....’ ‘... I beg of you, sir, not to be displeased with your old aide-de-camp, if you read in the _Gazette_, or elsewhere, that on the 7th of this month I broke my cane across two Englishmen for taking impudent liberties with my name. My conduct has been approved by military men and others alive to a sense of honour. Since making my two visits to the city, nobody has dared, either at court or anywhere about town, to make a wager, publicly, on the nature of my sex, of which I have stamped virile proofs on the faces of two insolent fellows....’