‘whose governor I appoint you.... It only remains for me to testify to the pleasure I experience in having you for one of my lieutenants, on service of such importance as is likely to contribute to the prosperity and glory of the nation....’[106] * * * * * _Louis XV. to the Chevalier D’Eon._ ‘The Sieur D’Eon will receive through the Count de Broglio or M. Tercier, my orders on the surveys to be made in England, whether on the coasts or in the interior of that country, and he will comply with the instructions he will receive to that end, as if he received them direct from me. It is my desire that he shall observe the greatest secrecy in this affair, and that he will not make any communications thereon to any person living, not even to any ministers wheresoever they may be. ‘He will receive a special cypher for corresponding on this subject, under cover of addresses to be indicated to him by the Count de Broglio or the Sieur Tercier, and he will communicate to them, by means of this cypher, all the information he is able to obtain on the designs of England, as regards Russia and Poland, the North, and the whole of Germany, so far as will, in his opinion, conduce to the interests of my service, of his zeal and attachment to which I am sensible.’[107] ‘Versailles, June 3, 1763.’ De Praslin failed, as we have seen, to incriminate the Chevalier in a correspondence with the exiled de Broglios, but it so happened that shortly after receiving the duke’s report of his midnight interview with D’Eon, on the subject of the battle of Villinghausen, de Pompadour obtained certain information tending to confirm her suspicions, without, however, affording sufficiently tangible evidence. Unsuccessful in securing this, whichever way she directed the scrutiny of those at Court too pliant to her will, her spirit of malevolence impelled her not to stop short of anything in the attainment of her wishes.