‘They have sent me a Chevalier D’Eon represented as Minerva, and a supposed warrant of the King conferring a pension of twelve thousand livres on this amazon, and commanding her to observe the most respectful silence, as was enjoined on the Jansenistes in other times. Here is a nice problem for history. Some Academy of Inscriptions will prove the case to be most authentic. D’Eon will be a Maid of Orleans who will not have been burnt. It will be seen how we have improved in our customs.’[345] D’Eon’s affected gaiety at length gave way; she fell into a state of melancholy, and then became quite ill, physically and morally. The Queen’s physician, Lasone, and the King’s physician, Lieutard, were ordered to hold a consultation, and terminated their visit by saying to the patient: ‘Be comforted, dear lady; yours is an incurable complaint, and will disappear as it came.’[346] But it was not in D’Eon’s nature to repose in moody silence, and she poured out her sorrows in pitiful appeals to the Counts de Sartines, de Vergennes, and de Broglio, praying, for the sake of her health, which was being seriously injured from want of exercise and the compulsory abandonment of the active habits of a lifetime, that she should be permitted to wear male attire, at least on Sundays and festivals; she was ashamed and sick at heart to be in petticoats, idly enjoying a pension instead of serving her King and country as she had been doing for so many years; and, further, she asked to be employed in the war that was on the eve of breaking out, France being about to become the active ally of the Americans. [Sidenote: SIGHING FOR ENGLAND.]