D’Eon declined the Secretary of State’s invitation to take leave of the King on the 26th, but he attended his Majesty’s levée on that day, and a dinner party in the evening at Lord Halifax’s, where the company included Mr. Grenville, the Prime Minister, Lord Sandwich, and others, and several foreign representatives. Scarcely had he entered the room at Lord Halifax’s, than de Guerchy, advancing rapidly towards him, asked why he had not taken leave of the King at the appointed audience. The Chevalier made his usual laconic reply: ‘Because I am awaiting further instructions,’ which led to an agitated and unseemly disputation, until D’Eon brought it to a close by addressing himself to the three English ministers who happened to be conversing together. ‘The Count de Guerchy forces me to the honour of declaring to your Excellencies, that I do not take leave at any audience, because I am awaiting further instructions,’ which little speech ‘de Guerchy confessed he was quite unable to comprehend, being himself a novice in diplomatic matters.’ Lord Halifax showing some inclination to take de Guerchy’s part, D’Eon drew from his pocket the invitation to dinner he had received, and said to his lordship: ‘Your Excellency has invited the minister plenipotentiary to dinner; I entreat that it be not delayed. It is late, and personally, I wish to avail myself peaceably of the honour you have done me. I do not come here to excite a disturbance but to bring peace.’ For such bold words as these, Lord Halifax, who as yet knew but little of D’Eon, was scarcely prepared; but they sufficed to put him on his guard, as the sequel will show, for he was beginning to discover that he had to do with a somewhat strange, perhaps violent, and at any rate very singular character. There called at the French Embassy one day in August, a tall, lean Frenchman, who announced himself as M. Treyssac de Vergy, a great friend of the Duke de Praslin and the Count de Guerchy, and other French ministers, and as having come to England to visit a country of which so little was known. The Chevalier D’Eon received him politely, but reminded him that it was customary to bring letters of introduction to a minister, and hoped that he would make it his business to do so; to which de Vergy replied that he did not consider such letters at all necessary from his being on terms of great intimacy with the Count de Guerchy, whom he had met at supper at the house of the Marquises de Villeroy, de Lirré, &c., and who was sure to embrace him on both cheeks the next time they met. He repeated his calls, still without producing any letters, until the Chevalier gave him clearly to understand, in the presence of several members of the Embassy, that he should have to refuse him admittance if he again made his appearance without some kind of recommendation. [Sidenote: A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR.]