The strange career of the Chevalier d'Eon de Beaumont : $b Minister plenipotentiary from France to Great Britain in 1763Telfer, J. Buchan (John Buchan)
History
The strange career of the Chevalier d'Eon de Beaumont : $b Minister plenipotentiary from France to Great Britain in 1763
Telfer, J. Buchan (John Buchan)
Eon de Beaumont, Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée d', 1728-1810; France -- Foreign relations -- 1715-1774
The body was privately interred in the churchyard of St. Pancras on the
morning of May 28, the coffin being inscribed, ‘Charles Geneviève Louis
Auguste André Timothée D’Eon de Beaumont. Né 17 Octobre, 1727, mort 21
Mai, 1810.’
Before the devastating spade and shovel of the Midland Railway Company
had commenced its work in 1868, to make a cutting through the churchyard
at St. Pancras, a slab, _in situ_, was to be seen bearing this
inscription:
CHARLES GENEVIEVE LOUISE AUGUSTE ANDRE
TIMOTHEE D’EON DE BEAUMONT,
DIED, MAY 21; BURIED, MAY 28, 1810,
AGED 83 YEARS.[383]
but, like numerous other monuments, it has disappeared,[384] ‘and the
place thereof shall know it no more.’
[Sidenote: APPEARANCE OF THE BODY.]
A cast was taken after death, of which an engraving was made, and a
tinted engraving of the _torso_, from a drawing by C. Turner, was also
published, with the surgical attestation as to sex. The body presented
unusual roundness in the formation of limbs; the appearance of a beard
was very slight, and hair of so light a colour as to be scarcely
perceptible on the arms, legs, and chest. The throat was by no means
masculine; shoulders square and good; breast remarkably full; arms,
hands, and fingers, those of a stout female; hips very small, and legs
and feet corresponding with arms.
So early as 1763, D’Eon had a tendency to being round-shouldered, a
deformity induced by much sedentary work, but that did not greatly
increase with years, or interfere with his carriage, which was good. The
low body, in red cloth, lined with coarse canvas, of one of the last
gowns he wore, exhibits dimensions showing the obesity of his condition
at death.
Circumference at the breast 38 inches.
” at the waist 31 ”
Depth of centre whalebone in front 16½ ”
” ” ” at the back, pierced for lacing 14 ”
Diameter of arm-hole 9 ”
This garment is stiffened with seven whalebones; three being in front,
one upon each side, from arm-pit to waist, and two behind for lacing.[385]
D’Eon left a holograph will of some length, preceded by a preamble, and
appointed Sir Sidney Smith to be his executor, but the will was unsigned.
The preamble is headed, _Soli Deo Gloria et Honor_, and the testament
commencing, _Mors mihi lucrum_, ends with these four lines:—
‘Nu du ciel je suis descendu
Et nu je suis sous cette pierre,
Donc pour avoir vécu sur terre,
Je n’ai ni gagné ni perdu.’
The preamble directs:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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