Having satisfied some of her creditors with the proceeds of the sale, D’Eon occupied herself in packing the remainder of her effects in fifteen cases for conveyance to France. War had been declared, and the Citoyenne Geneviève at once sent her nephew O’Gorman to Paris, with the offers of her services in the form of a petition addressed to the Legislative Assembly, an extract from which was read at a sitting of that body. It stated that although she had worn the dress of a woman for fifteen years, she had never forgotten that she was formerly a soldier; that since the Revolution she felt her military ardour revive, and demanded, instead of her cap and petticoats, her helmet, sabre, horse, and the rank in the army to which her seniority, her services, and her wounds entitled her; and she also requested permission to raise a legion of volunteers. Unconnected with any party, she had no desire to brandish her sword in procession in the streets of Paris, and wished for nothing but actual service—war nobly made and courageously supported. ‘In my eager impatience,’ she continued, ‘I have sold everything but my uniform, and the sword I wore in the last war, which I wish again to wear in the present. Of my library nothing remains but the shelves,[369] and the MSS. of Marshal Vauban, which I have preserved as an offering to the National Assembly, for the glory of my country, and the instruction of the brave generals employed in her defence. I have been the sport of nature, of fortune, of war, of peace, of men and women, of the malice and intrigue of Courts. I have passed successively from the state of a girl to that of a boy, from the state of a man to that of a woman. I have experienced the strange vicissitudes of human life. Soon, I hope, with arms in my hand, I shall fly on the wings of liberty and victory to fight and die for the nation, the law, and the King.’ This petition, the reading of which was interrupted by repeated bursts of applause, was ordered to be honourably mentioned in the minutes, and referred to the military committee.[370] [Sidenote: UNDER THE ORDERS OF THE REPUBLIC.]