In conferring with Lord Ferrers, whose name appeared on D’Eon’s list as one of his principal creditors, Beaumarchais shrewdly observed that either the debt owed to him was imaginary, or his debtor had been imposing upon him, by obtaining large sums of money on the security of papers held to be of considerable importance, but which papers had never really been consigned to him, they having been concealed in his own residence. To this Lord Ferrers replied that he regretted Beaumarchais should seek to create a breach between his friend the Chevalier and himself—he little cared to which sex he belonged—as he valued him for the spirit he showed and for his virtues. He had not been deceived, he said, on the nature of the papers in the iron safe, represented to have been State papers, and having seen the inventory of them, signed by Beaumarchais himself, he was more than ever convinced of the Chevalier’s honesty and truthfulness, such papers being all he could have desired as security for his money. Even had his creditor died, he might have easily recovered what was owed to him, for the Court of France, or at any rate, the British Court, would have paid ten times the sum he claimed, rather than that publicity should be given to their contents. He was surprised, he added, at the dishonourable treatment by the French Court and its ministers of so extraordinary a person as the Chevalier D’Eon, who had worthily served his country, and yet had been so badly used. Defending himself against the charge of having deceived Lord Ferrers, D’Eon says:—