When under arrest, Bestoujeff was treated with unusual consideration, notwithstanding the general feeling against him from his known intimacy with Apraxin, the cause of so much national disgrace. He was detained for a time a prisoner in his own house, escaping the tortures to which others, equally compromised with himself, had been subjected; and, although designated ‘a traitor grown old in iniquity,’ it was decreed in the imperial manifesto ordering his trial, that ‘no severity was to be employed for the purpose of exacting his evidence or confession; but whatever he chose to say was to be noted.’ Bestoujeff was exiled to one of his estates, and Woronzoff succeeded him as Grand Chancellor. After the Bestoujeff affair, the Empress renewed her efforts—this time through his superiors—to induce D’Eon to enter her service. _The Marquis de l’Hôpital to the Cardinal de Bernis._ ‘St. Petersburg, June 29, 1758. ‘... I have proposed to M. D’Eon, in compliance with your wishes, again to attach him to the Court of Russia; but he says that he will not serve other master than the King for all the gold in the world; that he is sensible of his obligations towards you, and that he is too respectfully devoted to you to think of seeking elsewhere the rewards you will bestow upon him for serving under your orders and to your satisfaction as he is now doing. * * * * * _The Cardinal’s Reply._ ‘Versailles, August 1, 1758. ‘I cannot do otherwise than approve the motives which induce M. D’Eon to refuse employment offered to him by the Court of Russia. They are the results of his zeal to the King’s service, and of his attachment towards yourself....’[42] * * * * * _M. D’Eon to M. Tercier._