So far as the ministers were concerned, the Chevalier D’Eon was regarded in the light of a rebel and traitor, when all of which he could have stood convicted was, like poor Clinker, ‘hunger, wretchedness, and want; but de Broglio and the King knew otherwise. The compromising papers with the existence of which we have become so familiar, were still in his possession, and their immediate recovery having become an absolute necessity, the count was directed to arrange in a kindly and generous spirit for their surrender. He accordingly sent to London the Marquis de Prunevaux, an officer of distinction and a kinsman of the Duke de Nivernois, to propose the following conditions:—D’Eon to give up every document relating to the late King’s private or official correspondence; to give his word of honour to abstain, ever thereafter, from writing anything of a nature likely to awaken the recollections of his contentions with de Guerchy and de Praslin, and to avoid all such places where he would be liable to meet the Countess de Guerchy and her children. In return, he should receive a life-pension of twelve thousand livres,[280] have his military rank restored to him, all charges pending against him should be withdrawn, and a safe conduct signed by the King granted, enabling him to return to France and live in any part of the country most agreeable to himself. But D’Eon had lost his beloved master, whose slightest wish had ever been a law to him; he knew that his occupation was gone, but he thought he might recover the position he had lost if he played his cards well, and accordingly rejected the terms, substituting his own instead, in which he asked—(1) that his conduct should be purged of the calumnies imputed to it by the Duke de Praslin and the Count de Guerchy, and that he should be reinstated in the diplomatic rank and title he had held, as was done to the celebrated La Chalotais;[281] and (2) that all sums and indemnities due to him during the past twenty-one years, amounting altogether to 13,933_l._ sterling, or 318,477 livres, should be paid to him in full. In urging his claims to a sum of such large proportions, the Chevalier’s argument was a repetition of what he had advanced in days gone by, when soliciting Louis XV. and de Broglio for pecuniary assistance:—