‘... I will commence with what concerns the Sieur D’Eon. I conceive it to be possible that your Majesty has heard him unfavourably spoken of, and that you are therefore astonished at finding him included amongst the number of those persons honoured with the confidence of the late King. I cannot forbear observing that he was initiated in the secret correspondence at the time it was under the direction of the Prince de Conti. He was sent to Petersburg by that prince in 1756, after which he was specially chosen by the Dukes de Praslin and de Nivernois for the negotiations for peace in London, in 1762; and the late King having at that time important designs on England, ordered him to make direct reports. He was then made Minister Plenipotentiary in England, during the interval between the Embassage of the Duke de Nivernois and the arrival of the Count de Guerchy. It is evident that it was this special mark of confidence which gave him reason to hope he would receive support in his misplaced contentions with that ambassador, who, on his part, exhibited perhaps too much hastiness at first, and a little want of tact afterwards; but this does not excuse the faults of the Sieur D’Eon, whose excessive hastiness was beyond all bounds, and gave rise to unseemly incidents between persons honoured as they were by the offices they respectively held. The Duke de Praslin exercised such extreme severity upon that occasion, that the Sieur D’Eon was not to be tranquillised, and the latter, unable to return to France, and driven to despair and into difficulties, was well-nigh failing in his allegiance to his Majesty and about to divulge the secret confided to him, which would have shockingly compromised the sacred name of the late King, and especially in such a country as England. I was for a long time in the greatest fear. I asked his Majesty what I was to do, and took the liberty to represent to him that anything was preferable to allowing the subject of the secret correspondence to be known in England. I received orders to send my secretary to England. He knew the Sieur D’Eon, and appeased him a little, and it was at length arranged that he should remain in London for the purpose of communicating intelligence; but it was necessary to guarantee to him, in the late King’s own hand, a monthly allowance of one thousand livres, which he has enjoyed ever since.[272]