Category: Biographies
Childhood—His first Successes and Friends—Enters Diplomatic Service—Employed also by Louis XV. in his “Secret” Diplomacy—Mission to Russia—Attached to Chevalier Douglas in negotiating the Alliance of France and Russia—Triumphant Return to Paris 17-43
Childhood—His first Successes and Friends—Enters Diplomatic Service—Employed also by Louis XV. in his “Secret” Diplomacy—Mission to Russia—Attached to Chevalier Douglas in negot...
2. Part 2The mission with which d’Eon was to be entrusted was connected with the intricate scheme of these mysterious negotiations. For fourteen years diplomatic relations had been disco...
3. Part 3Having first secured the support of Elizabeth’s favourite, Schouvalow, who had been recently won over to the French party, the intrepid young diplomat made a sudden attack on th...
4. Part 4The minister was anxious to comply with his request by despatching him to the army; but this official sanction was insufficient for d’Eon; he required further the consent of the...
5. Part 5These instructions were precisely stated and commented upon by the Comte de Broglie in a letter which he sent, on May 7, 1763, to the Chevalier d’Eon in London. He recommended h...
6. Part 6On the following day d’Eon happened to be dining at Lord Halifax’s, in the company of Lord Sandwich and the Comte de Guerchy. He was too excited by the events of the previous da...
7. Part 7I have received, my dear mother, all the woeful and piteous letters you have taken the trouble to write to me. Why weepest thou, woman of little faith? as Scripture says. What i...
8. Part 8However suspicious, such evidence was extremely compromising in the eyes of a British jury. Guerchy would not be convinced, refusing to believe that anybody could credit these f...
9. Part 9In an affair that occurred at the same time, and caused a great stir in London, d’Eon played a more active part, which, thanks to his great ability, obtained for him the approba...
10. Part 10It is strange to find d’Eon claiming, in July 1771, so energetically (for it was the last time that he did so without ambiguity) his real sex. From that moment he began to enter...
11. Part 11As for the Comte de Broglie, whom the King had screened, guided by selfish motives rather than by a sense of justice, he only escaped imprisonment to be exiled. His arrogant cha...
12. Part 12It was, indeed, an important result; but another was necessary, which alone, in Vergennes’ opinion, could completely reassure the court in preventing for ever any recurrence of...
13. Part 13I have received, Mademoiselle, the letter you did me the honour to write on the 1st of this month. Had you not given way to feelings of mistrust, which, I am persuaded, were not...
14. Part 14The opinion of d’Eon’s contemporaries on his appearance, his attire and his manner is, moreover, as unanimous as it is unflattering. “However plain, however prudish her large bl...
15. Part 15D’Eon seems, in fact, as his little diary shows, to have admired the charming hostess no less than he appreciated her suppers. He spent most of his evenings at her house, and wh...
16. Part 16I am leaving, Madame, the Abbey of Haute-Bruyère, where Mademoiselle de Torigny, after having refused a most advantageous marriage, from a worldly point of view, has left all in...
17. Part 17The praise which that compliance causes you to bestow upon me, gives an idea of my talents and my merit which is quite at variance with the opinion I ought to have of them.
18. Part 18Moreover, the Bishop of Langres had recommended d’Eon very warmly to his brother, the Marquis de la Luzerne, the French ambassador, who, by a strange coincidence, happened to ha...
19. Part 19Despair was not a salient feature in d’Eon’s character, for at the moment he sent this doleful letter he was engaged in preparing an edition of Horace, and an Englishman offered...