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CHARLES-GENEVIÈVE-LOUIS-AUGUSTE-ANDRÉ-TIMOTHÉE CHARLOTTE-GENEVIÈVE-LOUISA-AUGUSTA-ANDRÉE-TIMOTHÉE-MARIE

D'EON DE BEAUMONT.

Doctor of Civil and of Canon Law, and Advocate of the Parliament of Paris.

Cenfor Royal for Hiftory and Belles-Lettres.

Sent to Ruffia, firft fecretly, then officially, with the Chevalier Douglas for the Purpose of re-establishing friendly Relations between that Country and France.

Secretary of the Embaffy Extraordinary at the Court of Her Imperial Majefty, the Empreff Elizabeth.

Captain of Dragoons and Aide-de-Camp to Marfhal the Duke and to the Count de Broglio.

Secretary of the Embaffy Extraordinary from France to Great Britain for concluding the Peace of 1763.

Knight of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis.
Refident, and afterwards Minifter Plenipotentiary

from France to Great Britain,

and, finally,

a Lady at the Court of Marie Antoinette,
and an occafional and honoured Inmate

at

L'Abbaye Royale des Dames de Hautes Bruyères,
La Maifon des Demoiselles de St. Cyr,
and at the

Monaftère des Filles de Ste. Marie.

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Birth of D'Eon de Beaumont and registry as a male-child-ParentageConsecrated to the Virgin Mary and admitted to the Sisterhood-Pursues studies as a boy-Early display of abilities-As secret agent, is sent to Russia by Louis XV.-Reception at St. Petersburg-Enemies and friends-Leaves for Versailles-Invited to enter the service of Russia.

THE deeper the search in the annals of my family,' wrote the subject of this Memoir, 'the purer, more stainless, and more distinguished will it prove to be. One member only, Eon de l'Etoile,' was condemned by the Council of Rheims in the year 1148; but how many emperors, kings, and men of letters have been condemned and proscribed by popes and councils, legally or illegally. There is a vast difference between condemnation by the priesthood for gross errors in matters of religion, and condemnation by judges for the crimes of high treason, assassination, murder, and poisoning.

"The possession of a name and noble descent, of which the origin is lost in obscurity, has ever been considered amongst civilised nations a more respectable title than one of recent date, owed to the favour of a king-favour accorded more frequently to weakness than to courage, to vice than to virtue. We know the secret motives by which kings are guided in their public

1 Accused of being a fanatic, Eon de l'Estoile was committed to prison by the Council of Rheims on March 22, 1148, and died a few days later of the ill-treatment to which he was subjected by those in whose charge he was placed. See De Bois de la Chesnaye's Genealogical Dictionary, for the D'Eon family.

B

acts, since the time that they have become attended by valets, mistresses, ministers, cabinet ministers, and historiographers.' 1

On the first page of a well-thumbed devotional pamphlet in MS., given to D'Eon de Beaumont upon his entering the Collége Mazarin, at Paris, in 1740, appears the following in that person's own hand :

'I was born on the 5th, and baptised on October 7, 1728, at the parish church of Notre Dame, Tonnerre. I was confirmed in front of the high altar of the parish church of St. Sulpitius in Paris; and on Thursday, June 18, 1744, I communicated for the first time in the chapel of the Virgin at the parish church of St. Sulpitius, Paris.' 2

The baptismal certificate is as follows:

'On October 7, 1728, was baptised Charles-Geneviève-LouisAuguste-André-Thimothée, son of the noble Louis Déon de Beaumont, director of the King's demesnes, and of dame Françoise de Charenton, his father and mother legitimately married, born on the 5th of the present month. His godfather is M. Charles Regnard, advocate of Parliament, bailiff of Cruzy; and godmother, dame Geneviève Déon, wife of M. Mouton, wine merchant at Paris, all of whom affix their signatures :--

'G. DEON.

'C. REGNARD.

'MOUTON.

'BORDES, Dean of Tonnerre.'

Louis Déon de Beaumont was advocate in Parliament, King's counsellor, sub-delegate of the Intendance of the generality of Paris, and for some time mayor of Tonnerre. His brothers were André-Thimothée Déon de Tissey, advocate in Parliament, censor-royal, chief secretary of police in Paris, and principal secretary to H.R.H. the Duke d'Orleans; Jacques Déon de Pommard, advocate in Parliament, one of the first secretaries to the Count d'Argenson, Minister of War; Michel Déon

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