The Chevalière had been exerting herself to save France from meddling in the War of Independence, undertaking to prove that the reasons alleged in the manifesto of the French Court were not founded either on philosophical or political arguments,[347] representations to which de Vergennes, who was easily accessible to her, was disposed to give his attention. But Beaumarchais had everything to gain by the prosecution of the war, and secured to himself all access to the French Court, to the exclusion of D’Eon, who found it impossible to approach either King or ministers. Individually, de Vergennes’ treatment of D’Eon had always been considerate, and at times indulgent, and since all her supplications to the several ministers had been treated with callous indifference, she imagined she might succeed in disburdening herself of the yoke imposed upon her by getting back to London if she could but secure his interest and influence. ’Tis said that James I. of England thought that if he were ever to be confined in a prison, he should wish that prison to be a library. D’Eon pleaded hard that her books and some valuable MSS., all ‘so dear to her purse and to her heart,’ were in London, where she desired to live in retirement with them for her companions. Her metamorphosis, her long illness, the war, the almost sudden death of Lord Ferrers, and the non-payment of monies legitimately due to her, had despoiled her of health and fortune, and she reminded the minister that the pledges contained in his letter of July 12, 1777, confirming the intentions of the late King in his order of April 1, 1766, left her at liberty to go whithersoever she would.[348] The reply, in his Majesty’s name, was a firm refusal. [Sidenote: ADDRESS TO THE LADIES OF ST. CYR.] If D’Eon had sinned, she was as surely suffering. There was no hope whatever of escape from her bondage, and with her high spirit seemingly humbled, she sought, or pretended to seek for comfort in the consolations of religion. She retired, she says, speaking of herself, to different convents, that she might acquire the customs, habits, occupations and virtues which most became her, and if she had offered a bad example in wearing the King’s uniform in time of war, she made ample reparation by wearing, in time of peace, the Queen’s uniform amongst the ladies at Court; then she adds, comically enough, that it was to the edification of the Church and of her neighbours she retired frequently to the ‘Abbaye Royale des Dames de Hautes-Bruyères,’ to the ‘Maison des Demoiselles de St. Cyr,’ and to the ‘Monastère des Filles de Ste. Marie.’ In accepting the invitation to visit the ladies at St. Cyr, D’Eon thus wrote to Madame ——, one of the inmates:—