CLAIMS TO CONSIDERATION.

225

dangerous hostility. Rejoicing in his fall and full of hope in the new order of things, the Chevalier appealed to de Broglio for intercession in his behalf with the young King.

'His late Majesty and you have deigned to approve, by your letters of August 22, 1766, &c., my conduct in delivering to M. Durand and the Baron de Breteuil the secret papers you required. You equally approved my conduct, by letter of February 10, 1767, in communicating to the Prince de Masseran the discovery I had made of England's design to invade Mexico and Peru in the approaching war, on the plan devised by the Sieur Caffaro, that is to say, the Marquis d'Aubaret, for which he receives 600l. sterling per annum from the English ministry. . . . You also approved, by letter of September 23, 1769, my vigilance in giving you eight months' notice of the naval expedition projected by Russia against the Turks, and of which you were a witness. His Majesty, as also the King of England, deigned to approve my conduct in the affair of Dr. Musgrave on the subject of the peace, which created so great a sensation in London in 1769 and 1770. I will not worry you by entering into particulars on the various testimonies of approbation you have deigned to give me, on behalf of his Majesty, as to my zeal in keeping you informed of interesting events that have already occurred, that are now passing, and are yet to take place.

'It is time, after the cruel loss we have experienced of our Counsellor-in-Chief 2 at Versailles, who, in the midst of his own court, had less power than a king's advocate at the Châtelet; who, through incredible weakness, ever suffered his faithless servants to triumph over his secret servants who were true to him, and who had ever more largely favoured his declared enemies rather than his real friends; it is time, I say, that you should inform the new King, who loves truth, and of whom it is said that he is as firm as his illustrious grandfather was weak; it is time, for us both, that you should inform this young monarch of your having been the secret minister of Louis XV.

1

Spanish ambassador in London.

2 Louis XV.

Q

during upwards of twenty years, and of my having been underminister, under his orders and yours; that during the last twelve years I have sacrificed my fortune, advancement, and happiness, in desiring to obey, to the letter, his secret order of June 3, 1763,1 and the secret instructions relating thereto;'

that for particular reasons, known only to the late King, he thought it his duty to sacrifice him, openly, to the wrath of his ambassador de Guerchy, to that of his ministers, and to the hysterics of de Pompadour; but that his sense of justice and kindness of heart had never, in secret, allowed him to abandon him, but that he had, on the contrary, given him, in his own hand his royal promise to reward and justify him in the future.

'Posterity could never believe in these facts, had not you and I all the necessary documents to establish them, together with others still more incredible. . . . Had the late good King not expelled the Jesuits from his kingdom, and had he a Caramuel or a Malagrida for his confessor, nobody would have been surprised; but, thank God, I hope the new King will soon deliver you and me out of our embarrassments. I trust that no Jesuit will ever be his confessor, friend, or minister, whether he be disguised as priest, chancellor, duke and peer, courtier or courtesan.'

72

De Broglio had said much more in his favour to Louis XVI. than he chose to tell D'Eon, and he now conveyed to him the King's desire that he should continue to make his reports in cypher, addressing all such communications to the Count de Vergennes.

1 See

p. 77.

2

July 7 1774. Boutaric, ii. 434.

CHAPTER XIII.

The Count de Broglio's offers for the surrender of the King's papersD'Eon's conditions-Failure of the transaction-Proposal of marriage to (Mademoiselle) D'Eon-Beaumarchais-The Madame Dubarry scandal -De Vergennes' instructions to Beaumarchais-That minister's high opinion of D'Eon-Beaumarchais' success in treating with D'Eon.

So far as the ministers were concerned, the Chevalier D'Eon was regarded in the light of a rebel and traitor, when all of which he could have stood convicted was, like poor Clinker, hunger, wretchedness, and want; but de Broglio and the King knew otherwise. The compromising papers with the existence of which we have become so familiar, were still in his possession, and their immediate recovery having become an absolute necessity, the count was directed to arrange in a kindly and generous spirit for their surrender. He accordingly sent to London the Marquis de Prunevaux, an officer of distinction and a kinsman of the Duke de Nivernois, to propose the following conditions:-D'Eon to give up every document relating to the late King's private or official correspondence; to give his word of honour to abstain, ever thereafter, from writing anything of a nature likely to awaken the recollections of his contentions with de Guerchy andde Praslin, and to avoid all such places where he would be liable to meet the Countess de Guerchy and her children. In return, he should receive a life-pension of twelve thousand livres,1

1 This was the largest pension about to be conferred upon any of the secret agents, with one exception, that of General Mokronosky, a Polish patriot,' who was awarded twenty thousand livres a year.

have his military rank restored to him, all charges pending against him should be withdrawn, and a safe conduct signed by the King granted, enabling him to return to France and live in any part of the country most agreeable to himself. But D'Eon had lost his beloved master, whose slightest wish had ever been a law to him; he knew that his occupation was gone, but he thought he might recover the position he had lost if he played his cards well, and accordingly rejected the terms, substituting his own instead, in which he asked―(1) that his conduct should be purged of the calumnies imputed to it by the Duke de Praslin and the Count de Guerchy, and that he should be reinstated in the diplomatic rank and title he had held, as was done to the celebrated La Chalotais; and (2) that all sums and indemnities due to him during the past twenty-one years, amounting altogether to 13,933. sterling, or 318,477 livres, should be paid to him in full.

In urging his claims to a sum of such large proportions, the Chevalier's argument was a repetition of what he had advanced in days gone by, when soliciting Louis XV. and de Broglio for pecuniary assistance :

'All the debts I have contracted in England are the natural consequences of the orders I received from the King being contradictory to those of the Duke de Praslin ; a natural consequence of the means to which I had recourse in defence of my honour and of my life; a natural consequence of the measures I adopted to prevent my person and papers from being carried off out of England, and a natural consequence of the criminal proceedings I was obliged to institute against the late Count de Guerchy, for having poisoned me at his table, and for having ordered and bribed de Vergy to assassinate me in London; also

1 La Chalotais, procureur-général of the Parliament of Brittany, arrested on a charge of having written seditious letters to the King. Although falsely accused, he was exiled by Louis XV., but recalled and reinstated by Louis XVI.

NEGOTIATORS NONPLUSSED.

229

for having sought to kidnap me-all atrocious crimes of which I adduced proofs at the trial, notwithstanding the indignation of the French Court, notwithstanding the presence of the ambassador, who owed his escape from the punishment he richly merited simply to a nolle prosequi mercifully granted by the King of England, in answer to his supplication, and to the everlasting disgrace of the said ambassador.'1

De Prunevaux remonstrated that the sum demanded was prodigious.

'Prodigious for you,' replied D'Eon, who insist on crown pieces doing duty in a country where guineas are fingered! Prodigious in your native Morvan, where a horse costs two louis, an ox six livres, and an ass a crown; but as for me, I have been living for the last thirteen years in London, where a turkey costs six livres before it is roasted!'

Notwithstanding a four months' residence in London, De Prunevaux could not prevail upon the Chevalier to leave England, for he insisted, after the example of the brave and virtuous La Chalotais, on a temporary reestablishment in his post of plenipotentiary which he occupied with distinction, and from which Madame de Pompadour, with a cabal of the great, by little and base intrigues expelled him; deeming all pecuniary satisfaction beneath his honour, gold being but a means and not the object of great souls.2

De Broglio's friendly remonstrances and reproaches were without effect upon D'Eon, who became the more obdurate from the moment that de Prunevaux resolutely, and once for all, refused to entertain any such idea as his reinstatement to his former official position. De Prunevaux was succeeded by Captain Pommereux of the Grenadiers, ordered to treat with D'Eon on the basis of an

1 Ch. MSS. 859.

2 London Evening Post, April 18-20, 1775.