‘Sieur D’Eon,—Reasons of a private nature, in addition to my confidence in the abilities of the Baron de Breteuil and in his zeal for my service, have induced me to make known to him the direct correspondence I hold with Russia, unknown to my Minister for Foreign Affairs, and to my ambassador. He is also informed of your having been admitted to this secret, for the purpose of facilitating the correspondence, as well as for communicating to me, directly, such particulars as you may consider it necessary to lay before me. The exactitude with which you have acquitted yourself of this duty, so far as your position and the distances that divide places have enabled you, satisfies me that you will afford me fresh proofs of your zeal during the stay of the Baron de Breteuil at the Court of Petersburg. I have given him to understand it is my intention that you should serve under his orders as secretary, for the sole purpose of carrying on the secret correspondence. You will receive a salary of three thousand livres from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, to which I will add two hundred ducats annually, as a mark of my satisfaction at the manner in which you have served me, and because I rely upon your continuing to do so. You will communicate to the Baron de Breteuil, with the greatest exactitude of which you are capable, laying aside partiality and prejudice, all the ideas you have formed on the character of the Empress of Russia, of her ministers, and of those who are employed in public affairs. You will also communicate your views on the conduct pursued from the commencement of the war to the present time, and what you believe might have been done to ensure success to the common cause, and what it is that has retarded it. You will write out the whole of this in a memorandum which you will give him, sending to me a copy, in cypher, by the earliest safe opportunity; in fact, you will communicate to him everything that you may consider of benefit to my service, whether as regards the past or the future. You will, however, await the information he will give you upon the subject of his secret instructions, that you may supply yourself with a copy, and take into consideration the best means to be adopted for their being carried out successfully. They will serve as your guide in all you will say, whether as regards what has been done or what is to be done. ‘This, my mark of confidence in the Baron de Breteuil, is a proof of how fully I am persuaded that he will execute my orders with zeal and ability. Notwithstanding the sincerity of his intentions, which I do not doubt, it is just possible that he may err as to the means to be adopted for giving effect to my secret instructions; you will in such a case expose to him, deferentially, your views.[55]