‘All the debts I have contracted in England are the natural consequences of the orders I received from the King being contradictory to those of the Duke de Praslin; a natural consequence of the means to which I had recourse in defence of my honour and of my life; a natural consequence of the measures I adopted to prevent my person and papers from being carried off out of England, and a natural consequence of the criminal proceedings I was obliged to institute against the late Count de Guerchy, for having poisoned me at his table, and for having ordered and bribed de Vergy to assassinate me in London; also for having sought to kidnap me—all atrocious crimes of which I adduced proofs at the trial, notwithstanding the indignation of the French Court, notwithstanding the presence of the ambassador, who owed his escape from the punishment he richly merited simply to a _nolle prosequi_ mercifully granted by the King of England, in answer to his supplication, and to the everlasting disgrace of the said ambassador.’[282] [Sidenote: NEGOTIATORS NONPLUSSED.] De Prunevaux remonstrated that the sum demanded was prodigious. ‘Prodigious for you,’ replied D’Eon, ‘who insist on crown pieces doing duty in a country where guineas are fingered! Prodigious in your native Morvan, where a horse costs two louis, an ox six livres, and an ass a crown; but as for me, I have been living for the last thirteen years in London, where a turkey costs six livres before it is roasted!’ Notwithstanding a four months’ residence in London, De Prunevaux could not prevail upon the Chevalier to leave England, for he insisted, after the example of the brave and virtuous La Chalotais, on a temporary re-establishment in his post of plenipotentiary which he occupied with distinction, and from which Madame de Pompadour, with a cabal of the great, by little and base intrigues expelled him; deeming all pecuniary satisfaction beneath his honour, gold being but a means and not the object of great souls.[283]