‘You were good enough to hold out hopes of payment being made to me, when I was leaving for Paris with the ratifications to the Treaty of Peace. I have been paying interest for nearly nine years, on the money I borrowed to enable me to serve the King in the extreme north, when nobody dared to go there.... The appointment of Minister Plenipotentiary, for which I never asked, has certainly not turned my head, thanks to a little philosophy; it has only involved me in heavier expenses.... If the affairs of the King are in a bad state, mine are going from bad to worse.... Soon I shall complete ten years’ service as a diplomatist, without having become richer or sharper.... I have incurred debts to the amount of 20,000 livres for having dabbled in politics.... I entreat you to decide upon my present and future prospects, and upon the favours I am to expect from your sense of justice; otherwise, I admit to you frankly, Monsieur le Duc, it will be impossible to carry on the war at my expense, during a time of peace.... If you are not good enough to think of me, I will die of consumption[115] instead of dying of molten grease as was the case with ——. I do not ask to be fattened at the King’s expense; I only wish for sufficient flesh to keep body and soul together.’ A friendly note of reproof from his late chief, de Nivernois, for having written so ‘churlish’ a letter to de Praslin, was met by D’Eon’s regret that his ‘churlish’ letter had given cause for vexation. The truths he exposed, and the integrity of his demands, were not intended to vex two just and enlightened ministers.... He respectfully demanded justice of a minister he respected ... he respected the minister’s economy that refused to pay his debts, but he respected much more his justice that should pay them. So soon as he received the money, he would become as meek as a paschal lamb. ‘If you are curious to know,’ continued the Chevalier, ‘what is passing in this country, the accounts are too long to repeat here, see my letters to the Duke de Praslin, and if you can then say I am an idle fellow, I will ask nothing more of the minister. When one serves the King well, one should at least have the wherewithal to meet the little liabilities incurred in unbounded zeal for his service.’[116] ‘D’EON, ‘_Ne variatur_.’ CHAPTER VI. D’Eon charged with extravagance at the Embassy—Irritating correspondence—Influx of French visitors—Odious proposal to D’Eon—Is to return to subordinate duties on being superseded—His remonstrances—The Earl of Hertford—The Count de Guerchy’s arrival in England, and D’Eon’s letters of recall—Secret despatch from Louis XV.—Official recall on the plea of mental alienation—Disregard of the ministerial orders.