the Count de Broglio that we may be the better able to show hereafter that he was not the only victim, amongst the confidential correspondents and agents, to the King's caprice and selfish indifference.

The new year opened with an event-perhaps upon the whole unfortunate for France-the not altogether unexpected death of Elizabeth (January 5); and the accession of Peter III. was the signal for a cessation of hostilities and a complete change of front on the part of Russia. The new Tsar agreed with Frederick to a truce, which developed into an alliance, and afforded him the opportunity for gratifying his tastes for all that was German, and further alienating the respect and sympathy of his people. In her struggle against her husband, for liberty and even life, Catherine turned to France for succour a circumstance that called for decision and steadfastness of purpose on the part of the French representative at her Court; but the Baron de Breteuil proved himself unequal to the occasion by his pusillanimity and hesitation,' and Catherine effected her will independently of French support. The disease was quickly acknowledged and the remedy as quickly found. De Breteuil was to be replaced by D'Eon upon the recommendations of the Duke de Choiseul and of the Count de Broglio, although on different grounds; the King readily approving, because in him would be combined with the minister plenipotentiary what was of greatest importance to his Majesty a well-tried secret correspondent. Other events, however, bid fair to change these plans. The Emperor was disposed of, and Catherine,

1 The Marquis de l'Hôpital had retired the preceding autumn.

2 Louis XV. to Tercier, June 1, June 19, July 28, 1762. Boutaric, i. 274, 275, 277. D'Eon received a gratuity of three thousand livres from the King (probably as a salve to the disappointment he must have felt at missing promotion). Louis XV. to Tercier, August 31, 1762. Ibid. i. 278.

ACCESSION OF CATHERINE II.

55

in grasping the sceptre, said: 'If I go to war it will be to suit my own convenience, and not to please others, as was the case with the Empress Elizabeth.' From various causes Louis XV. refused to continue with Catherine the secret correspondence he had entertained with her predecessor, and D'Eon's services were consequently no longer required at the Russian capital. De Breteuil was suffered to remain at his post until, too glad to escape the ever-increasing difficulties of his position, he was removed, at his own request, to Stockholm.

56

CHAPTER IV.

Portrait of Catherine II.-Her opinion of D'Eon and its fidelity-Portrait of Lord Sandwich-Of the Duke de Nivernois-D'Eon, secretary of Embassy in London-Two 'smart pieces of work'-Kindness to French prisoners Treaty of Peace with England-D'Eon takes the ratifications to Versailles-Delight of King and Ministers-The Marquise de Pompadour-The Count de Guerchy nominated ambassador at St. James' The Duke de Praslin's estimate of his qualities-The Duke tests D'Eon's loyalty towards himself-The Prince de Soubise at Villinghausen-D'Eon's respect for the Broglios-Is invested with the Cross of Saint Louis.

AMONG D'Eon's acquirements was accuracy in the delineation of portrait character, amusement in which he freely indulged. Describing Catherine II. during the last days of Peter's short reign, he says:

'The Empress is of prepossessing appearance; she is generally of an amiable disposition, although very cunning, intriguing, and vindictive. Her greatest ambition is to control affairs of importance; she is competent for administration. Her sympathies are entirely English, although she speaks French with great facility of expression. She is very fond of reading, and most of her time, since her marriage, has been spent in devouring the works of such modern French and English authors as treat most vigorously and most liberally on morality, nature, and religion. A work condemned in France is sure to meet with her entire approval. She is never without the works of Voltaire, De l'Esprit' of Helvetius, encyclopædias, and the writings of Jean Jacques Rousseau. She prides herself on her courage, on being strong-minded and a philosopher; in a word, she is by nature a little savante. She suggests to her husband

CATHERINE'S DEPRECIATION OF D'EON.

57

changes that may result in the fall of this Emperor of apes, in the hope of reigning in his stead as regent.'1

Notwithstanding the sagacity and exactitude, to use the Duke de Broglie's own words, with which this portrait is drawn, testifying to a certain amount of personal knowledge of the subject, the duke, in support of his theory that D'Eon could not at any time have been reader (lectrice) to Elizabeth, reproduces a letter of questionable accuracy from Catherine II. to Grimm, to show how complete a cipher he must have been at the Russian Court. It is dated April 13, 1778.

The Empress Elizabeth never had a reader' (lectrice) wrote her Majesty, and M. or Mademoiselle D'Eon was not better known to her than to me, who have only known him as a sort of political drudge (galopin politique) in the service of the Marquis de l'Hôpital and of the Baron de Breteuil.'3

3

We need not stop to inquire why the Empress Catherine, attached as she was, when grand-duchess, to the party against which all D'Eon's assaults, by command of his sovereign, were directed; and who sat up for nights, translating into French from the Russian, for the edification of Sir Hanbury Williams, all such decisions of the Council as were favourable to France, should have thus expressed herself with regard to the secretary of a brilliant French Embassy; and this in his adversity, twenty-two years after his certain appearance at the Court of Russia for the first time. Apart from D'Eon's own observation that he dined occasionally at

1 D'Eon to the Count de Broglio, July 1, 1762. De Broglie, ii. 105. Peter III. was assassinated July 14, 1762.

2 Madame Campan, the contemporary who notices the employment of D'Eon as reader to Elizabeth, employs the term lecteur. I do not know on what equally reliable authority the duke uses the word lectrice.

3 De Broglie, ii. 607. I have not been able to consult the original work.

the table of the grand-duke, there exists a letter which tends to controvert the assertion of her Majesty.

The Marquis de l'Hôpital to M. D'Eon.

1

'Plombières, August 13, 1762.

And so the bully 1 has ceased to exist! What a page he will fill in history! Now let us see to the new Catherine. She has all the courage and the qualities requisite for making a great Empress, and I have agreeable recollections of having heard you frequently say so; her firmness, on certain occasions, has always been to your taste. It should also be admitted that you discovered the hidden virtues of the Princess Dashkoff; it is true that you have known her and cultivated her friendship since her earliest youth, and that you and the Chevalier Douglas encouraged her romantic temperament.'

2

We have here, at any rate, the testimony of the French ambassador to D'Eon's personal knowledge of the Empress Catherine, and of his intimacy with the Princess Dashkoff,3 of whom we will have something to say hereafter.

In taking leave of Russia and its concerns, as we must now do, we are brought to the close of the Seven Years' War, and our attention turns for a time to the relations of France with Great Britain during the administration of Lord Bute.

The preliminaries of the notable peace of 1763, between France and England, were signed at Fontainebleau on November 3, 1762, the ambassador selected to conduct the negotiations in England being the Duke de Nivernois, once ambassador at Rome, and sent to Berlin in trying circumstances (1756) to endeavour to treat with Frederick. Gaillardet and the Duke de

1 Peter III.

2 Lett. Mém. &c. i. 382.

3 Countess Catherine Woronzoff was the maiden name of this lady.