‘No reference is here made, either to the instructions sent to the Marquis de l’Hôpital, directing him to enter upon negotiations for terminating the German war, by means of, and by the mediation of the Empress of Russia, or to what has prevented them. The inconvenience which might have resulted from the influence and dangerous preponderance which Russia would in this way have acquired, and the real advantages she would have procured for herself, are too well known to be repeated here. It is, therefore, a matter for congratulation, so far as the interests of the King are concerned, that the Marquis de l’Hôpital, yielding in this instance to the prudent advice of the Sieur D’Eon, had allowed the opportunity to slip, which he had been eagerly enjoined to seize.’[51] [Sidenote: DISLIKE TO RUSSIA.] Four years of anxious and hard toil in a climate which did not suit him had told on D’Eon’s health, until he felt seriously inconvenienced from scurvy and an affection of the eyes, and his return to France became but a question of time. He was longing for home. Apart from his dislike to life at Court, where he felt that ‘it was impossible for a simply virtuous, non-intriguing and dispassionate man to succeed,’ he had made up his mind that Russia was not a country for a freeman to live in. He could not forget that he and five other officers attached to the Embassy had to lay aside their uniforms, to avoid the insults offered by soldiers and people of the lower class, at times when France was meeting with reverses, such as those at Rosbach and Minden; and the mortification he endured at hearing the Empress’ words of comfort to his chief, the French ambassador. It was reported that D’Eon had determined upon not remaining in Russia because he had seen the daughter of Pope Urban X. (_sic_), who was married to the gardener of a boyar, receive twenty blows with a stick for several days consecutively; and because the said boyar and thirty other boyars were broken on the wheel, two years afterwards, for their share in some Court broil. He mentions this report of himself without adding any comment, but relates an anecdote which clearly confirms his unfavourable opinion of the country he was in. A Russian nobleman said to him one fine summer’s day:— ‘Sir, all Europe is exasperated against us; but look around, where you will, and you see beautiful fertile plains teeming with corn and game.’ ‘Prince,’ replied D’Eon, ‘I see a crow yonder on the plain, and I regret that I have not my gun with me. I would shoot it off-hand, because, having wings, it remains in a country of slavery, instead of making use of them and flying away into Poland, a land of liberty!’[52]