Portrait of Catherine II.—Her opinion of D’Eon and its fidelity—Portrait of Lord Sandwich—Of the Duke de Nivernois—D’Eon, secretary of Embassy in London—Two ‘smart pieces of work’—Kindness to French prisoners—Treaty of Peace with England—D’Eon takes the ratifications to Versailles—Delight of King and Ministers—The Marquise de Pompadour—The Count de Guerchy nominated ambassador at St. James’—The Duke de Praslin’s estimate of his qualities—The Duke tests D’Eon’s loyalty towards himself—The Prince de Soubise at Villinghausen—D’Eon’s respect for the Broglios—Is invested with the Cross of Saint Louis. Among D’Eon’s acquirements was accuracy in the delineation of portrait character, amusement in which he freely indulged. Describing Catherine II. during the last days of Peter’s short reign, he says:— ‘The Empress is of prepossessing appearance; she is generally of an amiable disposition, although very cunning, intriguing, and vindictive. Her greatest ambition is to control affairs of importance; she is competent for administration. Her sympathies are entirely English, although she speaks French with great facility of expression. She is very fond of reading, and most of her time, since her marriage, has been spent in devouring the works of such modern French and English authors as treat most vigorously and most liberally on morality, nature, and religion. A work condemned in France is sure to meet with her entire approval. She is never without the works of Voltaire, ‘De l’Esprit’ of Helvetius, encyclopædias, and the writings of Jean Jacques Rousseau. She prides herself on her courage, on being strong-minded and a philosopher; in a word, she is by nature a little _savante_. She suggests to her husband changes that may result in the fall of this Emperor of apes, in the hope of reigning in his stead as regent.’[72] Notwithstanding the sagacity and exactitude, to use the Duke de Broglie’s own words, with which this portrait is drawn, testifying to a certain amount of personal knowledge of the subject, the duke, in support of his theory that D’Eon could not at any time have been reader (_lectrice_)[73] to Elizabeth, reproduces a letter of questionable accuracy from Catherine II. to Grimm, to show how complete a cipher he must have been at the Russian Court. It is dated April 13, 1778. ‘The Empress Elizabeth never had a reader’ (_lectrice_) wrote her Majesty, ‘and M. or Mademoiselle D’Eon was not better known to her than to me, who have only known him as a sort of political drudge (_galopin politique_) in the service of the Marquis de l’Hôpital and of the Baron de Breteuil.’[74] [Sidenote: CATHERINE’S DEPRECIATION OF D’EON.]