Refusal of the British Government to deliver D’Eon—A force organised to kidnap him—Mines and garrisons his house against intrusion—De Guerchy reports to Louis XV. his failure to obtain the secret papers—D’Eon’s letter to his mother—Publication of official and private letters of ministers, ambassadors, &c.—Consternation produced in consequence—Applies to enter the service of a foreign State—Appeals to de Broglio and Tercier on his situation—A conciliatory letter the result. In hastening to make a formal demand for the arrest of D’Eon and seizure of all his papers, the French ambassador was feeling satisfied that the days of his obnoxious subordinate were numbered, but ‘one of the qualities of a great general is the glance, in war, that reveals to him the advantages and disadvantages of the field on which the contest is about to take place. Had General de Guerchy known this, would he ever have selected the ground of liberty in London and Westminster to wage an unjust and despotic war against the Chevalier D’Eon? But this would not be matter for surprise, when it was once known that at the battle of Minden he gave the marvellous advice to place cavalry in the centre and infantry on the wings. The result of the two actions could not but be similar.’[146] The Chevalier was perfectly safe. Lord Halifax sent the case, ‘which was of a very extraordinary kind and without any known precedent,’ for the consideration of the Advocate and Solicitor-General, and eventually had to inform the French ambassador that, ‘according to the law of the kingdom, it would be impossible to justify the seizure either of the person or of the papers’ of the Chevalier D’Eon.[147] Since he could not be legally apprehended, the attempt was to be made, under de Guerchy’s authority, to kidnap the Chevalier, and for this purpose some twenty-five to thirty French police officers and spies, in charge of an officer, and who had already been some days in London, were watching a favourable opportunity for seizing and putting him into a six-oared boat in readiness at Westminster, whence he was to be conveyed to a small vessel, manned by twenty armed men, lying at Gravesend.