Part 5

Another attempt to discover d’Eon’s real sentiments towards the Broglie party was made—more discreetly this time—by the Duchesse de Nivernais, who, chancing one day to be alone with him, asked if he was not in correspondence with M. de Broglie. “No, madam,” replied d’Eon, “and I am sorry for it, as I am very fond of Marshal de Broglie, but I do not wish to weary him with my letters; I am satisfied with writing to him on New Year’s Day.” “I am very glad to hear this for your sake, my dear little friend,” continued the duchess. “Let me tell you in confidence that intimacy with the House of Broglie might be of injury to you at court, and in the estimation of Guerchy, your future ambassador.”

D’Eon had barely arrived in London, where the Duc de Nivernais, longing for departure, was impatiently awaiting him, when he was invested “in the prescribed forms” with the Cross of the Order of Saint Louis by his chief, at his own request. He had brought with him presents from the King to the Sardinian minister, one of the negotiators of the peace. Count Viry accepted “his Majesty’s favours with great pleasure and gratitude.” The presents consisted of the King’s portrait set in diamonds, accompanied by an autograph letter, a Gobelin tapestry, and a Savonnerie carpet. The first idea of the happy recipient of these gifts was to go to the Prime Minister, Lord Bute, and show them to him. The latter, Nivernais relates, “took them at once to the King of England, who considered they were magnificent and the letter charming.”

On May 4, the Duc de Nivernais was received in a farewell audience by George III., and two weeks later he set out for France, tired of London fogs, and happy to be again at Versailles, and at the Academy, and on his beautiful estate at St. Maur.

D’Eon became his own master in London, and began immediately to play the part and to lead the life of an ambassador. He kept open house, and among his visitors there were de Fleury, the Chevalier Carrion, a friend of the Duc de Nivernais, “a deputation of the Academy of Sciences which was to go to the Equator for the purpose of measuring the terrestrial meridian,” scholars and men of letters, among them Duclos, Le Camus, Lalande, and La Condamine. The Comtesse de Boufflers, who had captivated the Prince de Conti and the frequenters of the Hôtel du Temple by her wit and elegance, did not disdain, when on a visit to London, to do the honours of the embassy, as the following note testifies:—

Madame de Boufflers and Lady Mary Coke will come to dine with M. d’Eon on Monday if that suits him, and will bring Lady Susannah Stuart. Madame de Boufflers will, perhaps, avail herself of M. d’Eon’s offer by bringing two other friends of hers if they have returned to town, which she, however, thinks unlikely. She presents her compliments to M. d’Eon, and begs to say that she will help him to do the honours of the dinner to the ladies, both as a fellow-countrywoman and as one quite ready to be counted among his friends.

She has to inform M. d’Eon that Lord Holderness has returned, and that he therefore should be invited.

Thanks to the Duc de Nivernais, who did not consider himself quits with him, and was still exerting himself on his behalf in France, he received letters in July accrediting him minister plenipotentiary to the King of England.

Fortune and distinctions had come apace to “little d’Eon.” In less than two years he had risen from the post of secretary of embassy to that of Louis XV.’s representative to his Britannic Majesty, and had exchanged the title and uniform of a captain of dragoons for the position of a minister plenipotentiary. The obscure gentleman of Tonnerre could henceforth entertain on an equal footing the ambassadors of the highest rank and the great dignitaries of the court of St. James’. He took care not to miss the opportunity, and on August 25, St. Louis’ day, he gave a gala dinner, at which Lord Hertford, Lord March, David Hume, and the whole diplomatic corps were present. So sudden a success intoxicated him. But everything was extraordinary in the career of this young man of quite mediocre extraction, who, employed occasionally in secret diplomacy, was afterwards received into the regular service by favour; rewarded for his services by a lieutenancy of dragoons, and who, when barely thirty-six, was representing the King of France at the most magnificent court of Europe, after that of Versailles, and carrying on the mission of the Duc de Nivernais, a peer of the realm. D’Eon did not realise how surprising this rapid ascent through the most rigid aristocracy and the most exclusive classes appeared to the onlookers, nor how scandalous to his rivals. It was more in keeping with his character to abuse his advantages than to preserve them. His survey of the ground that had been covered, the remembrance of innumerable obstacles he had surmounted, far from teaching him prudence, only increased his presumption. He did not believe he was at the zenith of his fortune, but merely at the outset. His head was turned, although, anticipating reproaches, he denied it. He wished to access himself in the eyes of the English, his countrymen, his minister, and even of his King.

He continued to assume the position of ambassador until they should decide to confer the title upon him, and so raise him to the same rank as the premier lords of France. But if his determination never waned, if the resources of his active mind never diminished throughout this wild enterprise, his money was rapidly dwindling away. The almoner, the equerry, the five cooks and butlers, the four footmen, the porter, the two coachmen, the two grooms, and others, who formed his household, had to be paid, and, as his emoluments were insufficient for the purpose, d’Eon was obliged to apply to the Duc de Praslin for additional subsidies. He did so with admirably feigned moderation and disinterestedness, explaining that the appointment of minister plenipotentiary, for which he had never asked, compelled him, much against his will, to wear a few decent clothes and a little lace:

The appointment of minister plenipotentiary, for which I never asked, has certainly not turned my head, thanks to a little philosophy; it has only involved me in heavier expenses, as the enclosed account testifies. When I was secretary of embassy I went about plainly dressed in my uniform and cambric cuffs; now, much against my will, I must wear a few decent clothes and a little lace. If the King’s affairs are in a bad state, mine are going from bad to worse. Your kindness and your sense of justice will not suffer this. Soon I shall complete ten years’ service as a diplomatist, without having become richer or more proud. Many promises have been made to me, but promises and promisers have vanished. Till now I have sown much and reaped little. When the happy time comes for my release from politics, I shall be obliged to abscond and become bankrupt, unless you are humane enough to help me with some additional donation. The more zealously and courageously I work, the poorer I become: my youth is passing away, and I have nothing left but bad health, which is growing worse every day, and debts to the amount of over twenty thousand livres. These various little debts have been worrying me for so long that my mental capacities are completely absorbed and are no longer free, as I should wish, to serve the King’s interests. The time of reckoning appearing to be imminent, I entreat you to decide upon my present and future prospects, and upon the favours I am to expect from your sense of justice and kind-heartedness....

The Duc de Praslin was all the less inclined to grant the request as he had received at the same time serious complaints against d’Eon from the Comte de Guerchy. Not satisfied with incurring debts, the Chevalier had already spent a part of the future ambassador’s stipend. He regarded these emoluments as his own, for he would not admit that after being in the first rank he was once more in a subordinate position, that “he should descend from peer to peasant.” He persisted with Burgundian tenacity in his fanciful dream of gaining the title as well as the functions of ambassador, and of succeeding his former chief, Nivernais, in London. In spite of the warnings which he received from every quarter, and of the counsels of moderation which his best-informed and most devoted patrons, Sainte-Foy, the chief secretary of the Foreign Office, and the Duc de Nivernais himself, continually urged upon him, he would not yield and ended by receiving a well-deserved reproof from the Duc de Praslin:

I could never have believed that the title of minister plenipotentiary would cause you so quickly to forget the point whence you started, and I had no reason to expect that your aspirations would increase in proportion as you received new favours. In the first place, I gave you no ground for anticipating the reimbursement of your former journey to Russia, because three of my predecessors upon whom you made a similar demand had not, it appeared, found it legitimate. In the second place, you complain to me of empty promises having been made, but surely such has not been my way of dealing with you. Remember that I received you at Vienna when I had no reason for obliging you, for you were a perfect stranger to me. Upon your arrival you were ill, and I looked after you. When you left me you were uncertain as to your prospects here, and it was I who obtained the pension which was conferred upon you. Two years afterwards, being without employment, you applied to me, and I gave you the most suitable post and the most favourable opportunity for rising to notice. Lastly, when you brought the ratification of the treaty with England to us, the expenses of your journey were paid, and his Majesty rewarded you as if you had made ten campaigns in the field. If you are not yet satisfied, I shall be obliged to discontinue employing you, for fear of being unable to recompense your services adequately. But I prefer to believe you will feel the truth of my statements, and put your trust in future rather in my good will than in such groundless claims. I must not forget to mention that I have not noticed that the character of plenipotentiary involved M. de Neuville in any expenses here; his style of living is the same as when he was in the service of the Duke of Bedford. I cannot conceive the necessity for this extraordinary outlay at the expense of the Comte de Guerchy, which is quite out of place. I do not conceal from you my displeasure at your having involved in so great expenditure one in whom I take such an interest, and who trusted in you on my recommendation. I hope that you will be more circumspect in your demands for the future, and more sparing in your use of other people’s money, and that you will endeavour to be as useful to him as you have been to the Duc de Nivernais.

The Duc de Praslin was singularly mistaken if he expected to have the last word with his impetuous correspondent. D’Eon, far from giving in, was exasperated by such sensible advice, and, giving full vent to his ill-humour, replied the same day:

As soon as I learned, Monsieur le Duc, that the title of minister plenipotentiary was to be conferred upon me against my will, I had the honour of writing to the Duc de Nivernais that I regarded the title rather as a misfortune than as a boon.

The point whence I started, when very young, was my native town, Tonnerre, where I possess a small property and a house fully six times as large as that occupied in London by the Duc de Nivernais. The point whence I started in 1756 was the Hôtel d’Ons-en-Bray, Rue de Bourbon, Faubourg St. Germain. I am the friend of the owner of that mansion, which I left against his will to make three journeys to Russia and to other courts in Europe, to join the army, to come to England, and to bring four or five treaties to Versailles, not as courier, but as a man who had contributed to the framing of them. I have frequently travelled when very ill, and once with a broken leg. Nevertheless, I am prepared to return to the place whence I started, if such be my fate. I shall recover my former happiness there. The points whence I started are those of being a gentleman, a soldier, and a secretary of Embassy—all of them naturally leading to the position of a minister at foreign courts. The first gives a claim to it; the second confirms the idea and endues with the necessary firmness for such a post; but the third is the school for it....

If a marquis had accomplished one-half the things which I have accomplished in ten years, he would ask no less than the title of duke or of marshal. As for me, my aspirations are so modest that I ask to be nothing at all here, not even secretary of Embassy.

D’Eon, who felt excited that day, and courted disgrace for the pleasure of indulging in witticisms, was not yet satisfied. By the same post he sent similar impertinencies to the Comte de Guerchy, who had not ceased exhorting him to be more circumspect in his behaviour:

... I take the liberty of observing to you on the character which chance has given me, that Solomon said, a long time ago, everything here below was vanity, opportunity, mere accident, happiness, and misfortune, and that I am more than ever persuaded Solomon was a great preacher. I will modestly add that the chance which gave the title of minister plenipotentiary to a man who has negotiated successfully during the last ten years was perhaps not one of the blindest. What has come to me by chance might come to another by good luck....

A man, no matter who, can only form an estimate of himself by comparison with one or many men. There are several proverbs which serve to prove the truth of this. It is commonly said: _He is as stupid as any thousand—he is as wicked as any four—he is as mean as any ten—men_. This is the only scale by which we can be guided except in certain cases where men measure themselves by women. An ambassador, no matter who, may be worth half a man, a whole man, twenty, or ten thousand men. The question is to determine how a minister plenipotentiary, who is a captain of dragoons, and has completed ten political campaigns (without counting campaigns in the field), stands relatively to an ambassador who is a lieutenant-general, and is making his début....

I have already had the honour, sir, of thanking you sincerely for all your kind offers of assistance. As to my prospects, I frankly confess I am a second edition of Sister Anne in Blue Beard, who was always watching but saw nothing coming, and this often induces me to sing that beautiful song:

_Belle Philis, en désespère_ _Alors qu’on espère toujours._

IV

CONTENTION WITH DE GUERCHY

In his letter to the Duc de Praslin d’Eon called to mind “the point whence he started,” and only found cause to pride himself on his success.

This was a fair estimate of himself, though not a very modest one; but it showed little knowledge of his time. Having obtained when still quite young a rank and distinction which, to a man of his birth, should have appeared an unlooked-for consummation of his whole career, he could neither rest satisfied nor even equip himself with patience. Above all he could not resign himself to being put back. After contributing to an important negotiation as secretary to an enlightened and brilliant ambassador, whose tradition and bearing he had striven to maintain as minister plenipotentiary, he found himself compelled to act again as secretary under the orders of a chief new to diplomacy, wanting in ideas and resources, and bent on reaping the advantages of a fat living from his embassy.

Short of money, and irritated by the recriminations which the expenses of his temporary administration had obtained for him, d’Eon angrily awaited his ambassador.

The Comte de Guerchy arrived on October 17. “He received me with hypocritical politeness,” d’Eon relates, “and asked me in a wheedling tone if I did not regret having sent him my letter of September 25. I replied quietly: ‘No, sir; my letter was perhaps a somewhat sharp, but a fair, rejoinder to your attack of September 4, and were you to address to me such another letter, I should be obliged to send you a similar reply.’ ‘Come, come, my dear M. d’Eon,’ he retorted. ‘I see you are rather a quarrelsome person.’ Thereupon he drew from his pocket my letters of recall, which he handed to me with a grieved air, expressing his regret and assuring me once more of his friendship and attachment. I answered him only with a look ... and bowing distantly I withdrew, taking with me that official document of my disgrace.”

If d’Eon was as successful as he relates in concealing his mortification and in maintaining his composure, which was hardly his wont, the Duc de Praslin’s letter must have roused bitter reflections. Not only was he recalled to Paris, but he was forbidden to appear at court. This meant utter disgrace, exile and a severe check, if not an end, to his career. Too irritated to give way to despondency, and still hoping that Louis XV. would intervene on behalf of his secret agent, he determined upon awaiting events and deferring his departure as long as possible. His imagination, which was never at a loss for an expedient, supplied him with a complete plan of resistance in the scandalous contest which he did not hesitate to wage against the orders of his ambassador, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and the King. The next day, upon delivering the papers of the embassy to de Guerchy, d’Eon informed him that he was not in the least hurry to obtain his audiences of leave. Being accredited by letters bearing the King’s signature, he could only be recalled, he contended, by an act in the same form. Regarding, therefore, as null and void the letters of recall which he had received, and which were signed with the stamp alone, he declared his intention of awaiting “further orders from his court.”

De Guerchy pointed out to him in violent language the extreme impropriety of his behaviour, and the consequences to which it exposed him; then, growing gradually more and more heated, he told him—according to d’Eon—that “he should soon get the mastery over his obstinacy, and that, moreover, his ruin was already decided upon.”

With a view to putting an end to an equivocal situation and depriving d’Eon of every means of resistance, Guerchy went so far as to ask the court of St. James’ to hasten the audiences of leave of his embarrassing colleague. D’Eon allowed the step to be taken, but was most opportunely hindered from proceeding to the palace on the appointed day. All these chicaneries exasperated him and made him completely lose his presence of mind. A single incident was enough to make the dispute public, and to give this diplomatic intrigue an unexpected notoriety.

A Frenchman, the Sieur Treyssac de Vergy, arrived during the month of September. Advocate of the Bordeaux Parliament, he gave himself out to be a man of letters, made a parade of his grand acquaintances, and even boasted of having come to England with the promise of being appointed minister plenipotentiary in place of d’Eon. Upon calling at the embassy, he was somewhat harshly dismissed by d’Eon himself, who gave him to understand that he would not be received unless he brought with him the letters of introduction of which he had made mention. De Vergy protested, asserting that he was on intimate terms with the Comte de Guerchy; nevertheless, he promised to produce the recommendations required of him. D’Eon had not seen this strange visitor again, but had received extremely unfavourable reports concerning him from Paris. He was described as being a mere adventurer, over head and ears in debt, and of doubtful reputation, who imposed upon people under an assumed name. Consequently, the Chevalier was greatly surprised to meet de Vergy, with whom de Guerchy was, or pretended to be, unacquainted, at a reception given by the ambassador soon after his arrival. He showed his astonishment at seeing him at the embassy without an invitation, and during the course of a somewhat heated altercation “insulted him, and challenged him to a duel on foot or on horseback,” and was only calmed at de Guerchy’s intervention.

On 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 day to maintain his composure, even before the English ministers, and the ambassador’s presence only served to aggravate him the more. He thought it a good opportunity for declaring that he would not leave England before being recalled in a regular manner, and that, besides, he could not, in any case, dream of taking his departure before settling an affair of honour. The affair of honour in question was the quarrel of the previous day, which he complacently related to his hosts, informing them that he expected a visit from de Vergy on the morrow, that he should accept his challenge, and kill his adversary. When the English ministers reproached him with causing a scandal, and reminded him of the duties attached to his official position, he replied that “if he was a minister plenipotentiary he was above all a dragoon.” “Well, then,” retorted Lord Halifax, “were you even the Duke of Bedford himself, I should have to give you in charge of the guards.” “I have not the honour of being the Duke of Bedford; I am M. d’Eon, and have no need of any escort.”

He was so heated that Guerchy joined Lord Halifax in making every effort to calm him. D’Eon heeded neither entreaties nor threats and, pleading an engagement at his club, attempted to make his escape. Thereupon the minister ordered the passage to be barred, and d’Eon, beside himself with rage, exclaimed that he never could have believed it possible for a minister plenipotentiary to be kept a prisoner, in the presence of his ambassador, at the residence of a secretary of state. The scene was becoming tragi-comic. Lord Halifax and de Guerchy felt that they must put an end to it, so as to avoid a far greater scandal than the one they had tried to prevent. They began again to argue with d’Eon, who gradually grew calmer, and finally consented to sign a paper whereby he gave his word of honour to the Earls of Sandwich and Halifax not to fight M. de Vergy, and “not to insult him in any way, without previously informing the said earls of his intention.”

D’Eon made a copy of his engagement and caused Lord Halifax, Lord Sandwich and the Comte de Guerchy to sign it.