Transcriber’s Note
This book was published in two volumes, of which this is the second.
The first volume was released as Project Gutenberg ebook #37960,
available at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37960.
Two incorrect index sub-entries for Beaumarchais have been corrected:
jealousies aroused against -- page changed from 6 to 304
judged by parliament Maupeou -- page changed from 24 to 100
BEAUMARCHAIS
_And the War of
American Independence_
BY
ELIZABETH S. KITE
_Diplôme d’instruction Primaire-Supérieure, Paris, 1905
Member of the Staff of the Vineland Research Laboratory_
WITH A FOREWORD BY
JAMES M. BECK
_Author of “The Evidence in the Case”_
TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME TWO
ILLUSTRATED
[Illustration]
BOSTON
RICHARD G. BADGER
THE GORHAM PRESS
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY RICHARD G. BADGER
All Rights Reserved
Made in the United States of America
The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A.
“_The faith of a believer is a spring to which uncertain convictions
yield; this was the case of Beaumarchais with the King in the cause of
American Independence._”
_Gaillardet, in Le Chevalier d’Eon._
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XV
PAGE
Curious History of the Chevalier d’Eon—Secret Agent of Louis
XV—The Chevalier Feigns to Be a Woman—Curiosity of London
Aroused—Necessity for the French Government to Obtain
Possession of State Papers in d’Eon’s Hands—Beaumarchais
Accepts Mission—Obtains Possession of the Famous Chest 13
CHAPTER XVI
Beaumarchais’s Earliest Activities in the Cause of American
Independence—First Steps of the Government of
France-Bonvouloir—Discord Among Parties in
England—Beaumarchais’s Memoirs to the King—Meets Arthur
Lee—Lee’s Letter to Congress—King Still Undecided—Curious
Letter of Beaumarchais, with Replies Traced in the
Handwriting of the King 31
CHAPTER XVII
Beaumarchais’s English Connections—With Lord Rochford—With
Wilkes—Meets Arthur Lee—Sends Memoirs to the King—His
Commission to Buy Portuguese Coin—Called to Account by
Lord Rochford—Vergennes’s Acceptance of his Ideas—Article
in _The Morning Chronicle_ 56
CHAPTER XVIII
Memoirs Explaining to the King the Plan of His Commercial
House—Roderigue Hortalès et Cie.—The Doctor Dubourg—Silas
Deane’s Arrival—His Contract with Beaumarchais—Lee’s
Anger—His Misrepresentations to Congress—Beaumarchais Obtains
His Rehabilitation 77
CHAPTER XIX
Suspicions of England Aroused Through Indiscretions of Friends
of America—Treachery of du Coudray—Counter Order Issued
Against Shipments of Beaumarchais—Franklin’s Arrival—England’s
Attempt to Make Peace Stirs France—Counter Order
Recalled—Ten Ships Start Out—Beaumarchais Cleared by
Vergennes 104
CHAPTER XX
The Declaration of Independence and Its Effect in
Europe—Beaumarchais’s Activity in Getting Supplies to
America—Difficulties Arise About Sailing—Lafayette’s
Contract with Deane—His Escape to America—Beaumarchais’s
Losses—Baron von Steuben Sails for America in Beaumarchais’s
Vessel, Taking the Latter’s Nephew, des Epinières, and His
Agent, Theveneau de Francy—The Surrender of
Burgoyne—Beaumarchais Finds Himself Set Aside While Others
Take His Place—Faces Bankruptcy—Vergennes Comes to His
Assistance 126
CHAPTER XXI
De Francy Sails for America—His Disappointment in the New
World—Beaumarchais Recounts His Grievances against the
Deputies at Passy—Rejoices Over American Victories—Manœuvers
to Insure Safety to His Ships—The Depreciation
Of Paper Money in America—De Francy Comes to the Aid of
Lafayette—Contract between Congress and De Francy Acting
for Roderigue et Cie.—Letters of Lee to Congress—Bad Faith
of that Body—Deane’s Signature to Documents Drawn up by
Franklin and Lee—Beaumarchais’s Triumph at Aix—Gudin
Seeks Refuge at the Temple—Letters of Mlle. Ninon 154
CHAPTER XXII
Deane’s Recall—Beaumarchais’s Activity in Obtaining for Him
Honorable Escort—Letters to Congress—Reception of
Deane—Preoccupation of Congress at the Moment of His
Return—Arnold and Deane in Philadelphia the Summer of
1778—Deane’s Subsequent Conduct—Letters of Carmichaël
and Beaumarchais—_Le Fier Roderigue_—Silas Deane Returns
to Settle Accounts—Debate Over the “Lost Million”—Mr.
Tucker’s Speech—Final Settlement of the Claim of the
Heirs of Beaumarchais 184
CHAPTER XXIII
The _Mariage de Figaro_—Its Composition—Difficulties
Encountered in Getting it Produced—It is Played at
Grennevilliers—The First Representation—Its Success—
_Institut des pauvres mères nourrices_—Beaumarchais
at Saint Lazare 212
CHAPTER XXIV
The Marine of Beaumarchais—Success of His Business
Undertakings—His Wealth—Ringing Plea of Self-Justification
in the Cause of America, Addressed to the Commune of Paris,
1789—The Beautiful House Which He Built in Paris—His
Liberality—His Friends—His Home Life—Madame de
Beaumarchais—His Daughter, Eugénie 233
CHAPTER XXV
House of Beaumarchais Searched—The 10th of August—Letter
to his Family in Havre—Letter of Eugénie to her
Father—Commissioned to Buy Guns for the Government—Goes
to Holland as Agent of _Comité de Salut Public_—Declared
an Emigré—Confiscation of his Goods—Imprisonment of his
Family—The Ninth Thermidor Comes to Save Them—Life During
the Terror—Julie again in Evidence—Beaumarchais’s Name
Erased from List of Emigrés—Returns to France 253
CHAPTER XXVI
Beaumarchais After his Return from Exile—Takes Up All his
Business Activities—Marriage of Eugénie—Her Portrait Drawn
by Julie—Beaumarchais’s Varied Interests—Correspondence with
Bonaparte—Pleads for Lafayette Imprisoned—Death of
Beaumarchais—Conclusion 273
Bibliography 291
Index 295
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
P. A. Caron de Beaumarchais Frontispiece
Charles de Beaumont 26
Charles Gravier—Comte de Vergennes 54
Silas Deane 78
William Carmichaël 104
Lafayette 126
General John Schuyler 140
General Baron von Steuben 152
Robert Morris 166
The Temple 182
Cæsar Augustus Rodney—Attorney General of the U. S. 200
John Jay 220
D’Estaing 232
The Bastille 240
House of Beaumarchais 252
Madame de Beaumarchais 270
BEAUMARCHAIS
_And the War of American Independence_
CHAPTER XV
_Figaro—“Feindre d’ignorer ce qu’on sait, de savoir tout ce qu’on
ignore; d’entendre ce qu’on ne comprend pas, de ne point ouïr ce qu’on
entend; surtout de pouvoir au delà de ses forces; avoir souvent pour
grand secret de cacher qu’il n’y en a point; s’enfermer pour tailler des
plumes, et paraître profond, quand on n’est, comme on dit, que vide et
creux; jouer bien ou mal un personage; répandre des espions et
pensionner des traîtres; amollir des cachets, intercepter des lettres,
et tâcher d’ennoblir la pauvreté des moyens par l’importance des objets;
voilà toute la politique ou je meure.”_
_Le Comte—“Eh! c’est l’intrigue que tu définis!”_
_Figaro—“La politique, l’intrigue, volontiers; mais, comme je les crois
un peu germaines, en fasse qui voudra!”_
_Le Mariage de Figaro, Act III, Scene V._
Curious History of the Chevalier d’Eon—Secret Agent of Louis
XV—The Chevalier Feigns to Be a Woman—Curiosity of London
Aroused—Necessity for the French Government to Obtain Possession
of State Papers in d’Eon’s Hands—Beaumarchais Accepts
Mission—Obtains Possession of the Famous Chest.
It was the summer of 1775. The moment was approaching when the attention
of Europe would be directed towards the events transpiring on the other
side of the Atlantic, in that New World, of which the old was as yet
scarcely conscious. The stand for freedom, for individual rights, for
the liberty of expansion which was there made, was destined to rouse the
warmest sympathies amongst all classes, especially in France. The
enthusiasm which greeted the resistance of the colonies rapidly became a
national sentiment which the French government was unable to suppress or
even to keep within bounds. To direct this enthusiasm into a practical
channel that should lead to immediate and efficient support of the
insurged colonies whilst awaiting the active intervention of the
government, was to be primarily the work of one man, and that man was
Beaumarchais.
But in starting for London on the present occasion, he was unconscious
of the historic importance which this journey was destined to assume.
The mission with which he was charged was one of the most singular with
which any government ever seriously commissioned one of its agents.
There was living at this time in London the Chevalier d’Eon de Beaumont,
who was a former agent of the occult diplomacy of Louis XV, and who at
this time was an exile from his country, to which he had been forbidden
to return in consequence of the scandalous and disgraceful quarrel that
had occurred between him and the French Ambassador, the Comte de
Guerchy, years before. Although publicly disgraced, he retained the
secret confidence of the old King, who allowed him an annual income of
12,000 francs. The present government was willing to continue this
pension, but on condition that the chevalier give up the secret
correspondence of the late King, which remained in his possession, and
of which it was very important that the French government should obtain
control. It was to negotiate the remittance of this correspondence that
Beaumarchais was commissioned the summer of 1775. The oddity of the
character with which he had to deal, rather than the actual nature of
the mission, was what made the negotiation so difficult and the
proceedings so unusual.
Several years previous, about 1771, a rumor began to circulate in
England that the Chevalier in question was really a woman disguised.
Although one of the most belligerent of characters, who “smoked, drank
and swore like a German trooper,” it appears that “the rarity of his
blond beard and the smallness of his form (Gaillardet),” “a certain
feminine roundness of the face, joined to a voice equally feminine,
contributed to give credit to the fable (note of M. de Loménie, _sur le_
Chevalier d’Eon).” There were also certain facts in the life of the
chevalier which supported this theory; among others it was known that as
a very young man he had been sent by Louis XV in the guise of a woman to
the court of St. Petersburg, where he had succeeded in being admitted as
reader to the Empress Elizabeth.
As the Chevalier d’Eon was a widely known personage in English society,
the matter took on great proportions and became a subject of betting
according to the _manière anglaise_. D’Eon, who seems to have cared
primarily for one thing, namely, notoriety of whatever sort, secretly
encouraged the dispute, although he wrote at the same time to the Comte
de Broglie: “It is not my fault if the court of Russia during my sojourn
here, has assured the court of England that I am a woman.... It is not
my fault if the fury of betting upon all sorts of things is such a
national malady among the English that they often risk more than their
fortunes upon a single horse.... I have proved to them, and I will prove
it as often as they wish, that I am not only a man, but a captain of
dragoons, with his arms in his hands.” And yet he was able to keep the
world in a state of complete mystification as to his true sex, up to the
time of his death in 1810.
Voltaire says of him: “The whole adventure confounds me. I cannot
understand either d’Eon, or the ministers of his time, or the measures
of Louis XV, or those being made at present. I understand nothing of the
whole affair.” In his _Mémoires sur le Chevalier d’Eon de Beaumont_, M.
Gaillardet says: “The history of the Chevalier d’Eon was one of the most
singular and most controverted enigmas of the 18th century. That century
finished without its being known what was the veritable sex of that
mysterious being, who after being successively doctor of law, advocate
in the Parliament of Paris, censor of belles-lettres, secretary of
embassy at St. Petersburg, captain of dragoons, Chevalier de Saint
Louis, minister plenipotentiary to London, suddenly, at the age of 46
years announced himself to be a woman, assumed the costume of his new
rôle, and conserved it until the time of his death in 1810.”
As we shall presently see, and for reasons wholly justifiable, it is
Beaumarchais who works this transformation in the life of d’Eon. Nothing
in relation to his strange character is so passing strange as the fact
that the King and his minister, and above all that Beaumarchais himself,
the cleverest of men—should have been completely duped by the Chevalier
as to the matter of his sex. It even went so far as to be generally
believed that the _demoiselle_ d’Eon was seriously in love with
Beaumarchais, and the latter himself believed it. In the most skillful
way the chevalier endeavored to make use of this deceit to further his
own ends. Failing in this, and having made the fatal avowal and received
the King’s orders to assume the garb of a woman, the fury of d’Eon knew
no bounds. Powerless to wreak his vengeance in any other way, he
endeavored by calumny and abuse to thwart the career of the man upon
whom he had been able to impose only in the matter of his sex.
Beaumarchais readily excused all the insults cast at him, believing as
he did, that this is the manner of revenge of the strange creature, “his
amazon”—(as d’Eon is familiarly called in the correspondence between
himself and the minister Vergennes)—for finding that her love is not
requited.
But to return to the facts of the case: D’Eon, at the time of the death
of Louis XV was living in constant hope of being restored to favor and
allowed to return to France. His pension of 12,000 francs had proved all
too small for his support and he was heavily in debt. No sooner had the
young king, Louis XVI, mounted the throne than the Chevalier sent word
to Vergennes, minister of foreign affairs, announcing that he had in his
possession important letters which were of such a nature that should
they fall into the hands of the English, it might precipitate a war
between the two nations. An agent was therefore dispatched to enter into
negotiations. “Understanding,” says Gaillardet, “that if he did not
profit by this occasion, he would have little to expect from the new
reign, d’Eon resolved to put a high price on the papers in his
possession. He demanded: first, that he be solemnly justified of the
imputations directed against him by his enemies—especially the family of
the Comte de Guerchy; second, that all the sums, indemnities, advances,
etc., due him for the past 26 years, be paid, amounting in all to
318,477 livres, 16 sous.”
Unable to come to any reasonable terms, the negotiations were broken
off and the agent returned to France. He was replaced by another who was
equally unsuccessful, and for a time the matter was dropped.
In the meantime noise of the affair reached the English government, and
d’Eon soon had the satisfaction of receiving large offers from that
quarter if he would consent to give up the papers. The Chevalier,
whatever his faults, or the violence of his character, was not a
traitor; he had no intention of giving the papers in his possession to
the English at any price, but he was well satisfied that their value
should be thus enhanced.
In the meantime, his pension was suspended and finding himself without
funds, “he borrowed 5,000 pounds from his devoted friend and protector,
the Lord Ferrers, giving him as security a sealed chest, which, Ferrers
supposed, contained the famous correspondence. He took care, however,”
says Gaillardet, “to withdraw from that deposit precisely the personal
documents of the late King, which were the most important for the court
of France and for himself. These papers contained a plan for the
restitution of the Stuarts, a descent upon England, and other dreams,
constituting what d’Eon called _le grand projet_ of Louis XV.”
At this juncture Beaumarchais appeared on the scene. “To interest the
latter in his cause, and give him a mark of confidence (Gaillardet)
d’Eon avows with tears that he is a woman, and this avowal was made with
so much art that Beaumarchais did not conceive the least doubt.”
D’Eon recounted the history of the papers in his possession, and the
offers which he had resisted. Charmed to oblige a woman so interesting
by her sorrows, her courage, her _esprit_, Beaumarchais addressed at
once touching letters to the King in favor of his new friend. “When one
thinks,” he writes, “that this creature, so much persecuted, belongs to
a sex to which one forgives everything, the heart is touched with a
sweet compassion.” “I do assure you, Sire,” he writes elsewhere, “that
in taking this astonishing creature with dexterity and gentleness,
although she is embittered by twelve years of misfortune, she can yet be
brought to enter under the yoke, and to give up all the papers of the
late King on reasonable conditions.”
As to the motives which could have induced le chevalier d’Eon to avow
himself a woman, his biographer, already quoted, gives the following
explanation:
“His military and diplomatic career was about finished; disgraced, he
would disappear from the scene of the world and fall into obscurity. But
precisely shadow and silence were a horror to him. If there was a
mystery in his existence, if they learned that he was a woman, he would
become the hero of the day and of the century; his services would then
appear extraordinary. This metamorphosis would attract to him the
attention of Europe, and enable him more easily to obtain satisfaction
from the French government, who would no longer refuse a woman the price
of blood shed and services rendered.”
Both Gaillardet and Loménie, after a careful examination of all the
correspondence in relation to the affair between the Chevalier d’Eon and
Beaumarchais, assure us that not a line exists which does not prove that
the latter was completely deceived as to the matter of the sex of the
Chevalier.
Lintilhac, however, thinks that he has found proofs to the contrary in a
letter which begins, “Ma pauvre Chevalière, or whatever it pleases you
to be with me....” London, Dec. 31, 1775. Gudin, in his life of
Beaumarchais, says, “It was at a dinner of the Lord Mayor Wilkes that I
encountered d’Eon for the first time. Struck to see the cross of St.
Louis shining on his breast, I asked Mlle. Wilkes who that chevalier
was; she named him to me. ‘He has,’ I said, ‘the voice of a woman.’ It
is probably from that fact that the talk has all come. At that time I
knew nothing more about him; I was still ignorant of his relations with
Beaumarchais. I soon learned them from herself. She avowed to me with
tears (it appears to have been the manner of d’Eon—note of Loménie) that
she was a woman, and showed me her scars, remains of wounds which she
had received, when, her horse killed under her, a squadron of cavalry
passed over her body and left her dying on the plain.”
“No one,” says Loménie, “could be more naïvely mystified than is Gudin.
In the first period of the negotiation, d’Eon is full of attentions for
Beaumarchais; he calls him his ‘guardian angel’ and sends him his
complete works in fourteen volumes; for this curious being, this
dragoon, woman and diplomat, was at the same time a most fruitful
scribbler of paper. He has characterised himself very well in the
following letter: ‘If you wish to know me, Monsieur the Duke, I will
tell you frankly that I am only good to think, imagine, question,
reflect, compare, read, write, to run from the rising to the setting
sun, from the south to the north, and to fight on the plain or in the
mountains ... or I will use up all the revenues of France in a year, and
after that give you an excellent treatise on economy. If you wish to
have the proof, see all I have written in my history of finance, upon
the distribution of public taxes.’”
This, then, was the strange being with whom Beaumarchais had to deal. On
the 21st of June, 1775, he received from Vergennes the following letter,
which shows in the best possible light the credit which the secret agent
of the government had already acquired. He wrote:
“I have under my eyes, Monsieur, the report which you have given
M. de Sartine of our conversation, touching M. d’Eon; it is of
the greatest exactitude; I have taken in consequence the orders
of the King. His Majesty authorizes you to assure to M. d’Eon the
regular payment of the pension of 12,000 francs.... The article
of the payment of his debts is more difficult; the pretensions of
d’Eon are very high in that respect; they must be considerably
reduced if we are to come to any arrangement.... M. d’Eon has a
violent character, but I do him the justice to believe that his
soul is honest, and that he is incapable of treason.... It is
impossible that M. d’Eon takes leave of the English King; the
revelation of his sex does not permit it; it would be ridiculous
for both courts.... You are wise and prudent, you know mankind,
and I have no doubt but that you will be able to arrange the
affair with d’Eon, if it can be done. Should the enterprise fail
in your hands, we shall be forced to consider that it cannot
succeed and resolve to accept whatever may come from it.... I am
very sensible, Monsieur, of the praises which you have been so
good as to give me in your letter to M. de Sartine. I aspire to
merit them, and accept them as a gage of your esteem, which will
always be flattering to me. Count, I beg you, upon my own, and
upon the sentiments with which I have the honor to be very
sincerely, Monsieur, etc.
“De Vergennes.
“A Versailles, June 21st, 1775.”
July 14, 1775, Beaumarchais wrote to M. de Vergennes announcing that he
had obtained possession of the keys of the famous chest, which he had
sealed with his own seal and which was deposited in a safe place.
“Whatever happens, M. le Comte, I believe that I have at least cut off
one head of the English hydra ... the king and you may be quite certain
that everything will rest in _statu quo_ in England, and that no one
can abuse us from now to the end of the negotiation which I believe
about finished.” But in the meantime, while undertaking the settlement
of the affair with d’Eon, the active mind of Beaumarchais had become
enflamed with an ardent zeal for the cause of liberty, as it was being
then defended on the other side of the Atlantic. “One of the first,”
says Gaillardet, “he had embraced the cause of the Americans, had
espoused it with a sort of love that partook of idolatry.... He followed
every phase with an interest which nothing discouraged, not ceasing to
hope in the midst of reverses, triumphing and clapping his hands at
every victory.... He excused their faults, exalted their virtues, plead
for them with all the faculties of his _esprit_ and of his soul, before
those whom he wished to interest in their fate.”
Every voyage back to Paris, which the interests of his mission
necessitated, every letter which it occasioned, was made to subserve
itself to this one end which transcended all others; namely, to rouse
the young King from that state of indecision and indifference to which
he was born, and where he seemed likely to remain.
In the next chapter this subject will be taken up in all its detail; for
the present it is necessary only to remind the reader that the matter of
which we are now treating is all the while secondary in the mind of
Beaumarchais. It is, however, of vital importance in that, at the
beginning, it offers the avenue of approach to the King and his
ministers which might otherwise have been wanting. Through the masterly
way in which he settled the affair with d’Eon, the confidence of the
King and of his minister was secured. Before the affair was terminated,
an open channel had been established which permitted the whole current
of the genius of Beaumarchais to flow direct to its goal.
It will be remembered that the Chevalier d’Eon had borrowed five
thousand pounds of his friend the English Admiral, Lord Ferrers, and had
left him as security the chest containing the famous correspondence of
the late King. Before it could be delivered to Beaumarchais there were
many difficult questions to settle, the chief one being the Chevalier’s
return to France, owing to the resentment still felt by the family of
the Comte de Guerchy towards the Chevalier, and the latter’s well known
violence of temper. The King and M. de Vergennes demanded absolute
oblivion of the past and a guarantee that no further scandals should
arise. This was difficult to assure, owing to the fiery nature of the
Chevalier. Already, as we have seen, the latter had avowed “with tears”
that he was a woman.
August 7th, 1775, M. de Vergennes wrote to the King, “If your Majesty
deigns to approve the propositions of the Sieur de Beaumarchais to
withdraw from the hands of the Sieur d’Eon the papers which it would be
dangerous to leave there, I will authorize him to terminate the affair.
_If M. d’Eon wishes to take the costume of his sex_, there will be no
objection to allowing him to return to France, but under any other form
he should not even desire it.”
In a letter to Beaumarchais, the 26th of the same month, M. de Vergennes
wrote: “Whatever desire I may have to see, to know, and to hear M.
d’Eon, I cannot hide from you a serious uneasiness which haunts me. His
enemies watch, and will not pardon easily all that he has said of
them.... If M. d’Eon would change his costume everything would be
said.... You will make of this observation the use which you shall judge
suitable.”
The idea appeared not only good to Beaumarchais, but to offer, perhaps,
the only solution to the difficulty. He therefore made this the
condition of settlement of the debts of d’Eon, the continuation of his
pension, as well as of his being allowed to return to France. The same
motives which had actuated the Chevalier to declare himself a woman
worked now in favor of what Beaumarchais, endowed with full power in his
regard, demanded of him. Realizing, as M. de Vergennes had done, that if
the matter were not now adjusted, it would never be again taken up;
realizing too that his notoriety would be increased tenfold by this
metamorphosis, he decided to submit to what was imposed upon him.
Early in October, Beaumarchais wrote to M. de Vergennes: “Written
promises to be good are not sufficient to arrest a head which enflames
itself always at the simple name of Guerchy; the positive declaration of
his sex and the engagement to live hereafter in the costume of a woman
is the only barrier which can prevent scandal and misfortunes. I have
required this and have obtained it.”
As a matter of fact, on the 5th of October, the Chevalier signed the
famous contract, in which he promised to deliver the entire
correspondence of the late King, declared himself a woman and engaged to
“retake and wear the costume of that sex to the time of his death;” and
he added with his own hand, “which I have already worn on divers
occasions known to his Majesty.” The agent of the French Government on
his side agreed to deliver a contract or pension of 12,000 francs, as
well as “more considerable sums which shall be remitted for the
acquittal of the debts of the Chevalier in England.” “Each of the
contractants,” said Loménie, “reserved thus a back door; if the more
considerable sums did not seem considerable enough, the Chevalier
intended to keep a portion of the papers, so as to obtain still more
funds. Beaumarchais, on his side, had no intention of paying all the
debts which it should please the Chevalier to declare, and had demanded
of the King the faculty to _batailler_—to employ his own
expression—with the demoiselle d’Eon, from 100,000 to 150,000 francs,
reserving the right to give him the money in fractional parts, and to
extend or retract the sum according to the confidence which that cunning
personage should inspire.”
After the contract was signed, Beaumarchais still holding the money in
reserve, demanded the papers of which it was questioned. The chest was
produced. Suddenly realizing, however, that he had no authority to open
the chest and to examine the contents, and having but small confidence
in the veracity of the chevalier, he hastened back to Versailles,
obtained the desired permission, and reappeared in London with his new
commission. On opening the chest he found indeed that papers of but
small importance were contained therein. D’Eon, blushing, confessed that
the letters of which the French government desired to obtain possession
were hidden under the floor of his room in London.
“She conducted me to her room,” wrote Beaumarchais, “and drew from under
the floor five boxes, well sealed and marked, ‘Secret Papers to remit to
the King alone’, which she assured me contained all the secret
correspondence, and the entire mass of the papers which she had in her
possession. I began by making an inventory, and marking them all so that
none could be withdrawn; but, better to assure myself that the entire
sequence was there contained, I rapidly ran over them, while she made
the inventory.”
This want of honor in the Chevalier, whose security left with the Lord
Ferrers had been proved of comparatively little value, dispensed
Beaumarchais, so he considered, from the necessity of acquitting the
full debt contracted by d’Eon. This was afterwards most bitterly
reproached to him by the Chevalier. In a letter to Lord Ferrers,
Beaumarchais wrote: “I have lived too long and know mankind too well to
count upon the gratitude of anyone, or to feel the least annoyance when
I see those fail whom I have the most obliged.” (From a letter dated
Jan. 8, 1776, to Lord Ferrers,—Gaillardet.)
The note of 13,933 pounds sterling first addressed to M. de Vergennes
had since been increased by 8,223 pounds sterling, of which d’Eon
demanded the payment. Beaumarchais, however, true to the interest of the
King and his minister, to their great satisfaction, terminated the
transaction for a little less than 5,000 pounds sterling. From the
determined refusal of Beaumarchais to increase the sum arose the wild
fury of d’Eon, who saw his last hope escape him. His invectives against
Beaumarchais, his abuse, all had their origin here.
“I assured this demoiselle,” wrote Beaumarchais to Vergennes, “that if
she was prudent, modest and silent, and if she conducted herself well, I
would render so good an account of her to the minister of the King, and
even to His Majesty, that I hoped to obtain for her new advantages. I
did this the more willingly because I had still in my possession nearly
41,000 francs, from which I expected to recompense every act of
submission and of sobriety on her part, by acts of generosity approved
successively by the King and by you, Monsieur le Comte, but only as
favors, and not as acquittals. It was in this way that I hoped still to
dominate and bring into subjection this fiery and deceitful creature.”
Early in December, Beaumarchais appeared in Versailles with his famous
chest, containing at last the entire mass of papers, the negotiation of
which had occupied the minister of Louis XVI since the time of the
latter’s accession to the throne. Overjoyed at the successful
termination of the affair, the King and his minister testified their
satisfaction with warmth.
[Illustration: CHARLES DE BEAUMONT dit Mademoiselle le Chevalier D’Eon
1728-1810]
A very honorable discharge was given their agent with a certificate
which terminated thus:
“I declare that the King has been very well satisfied with the
zeal which he has shown on this occasion, as well as with the
intelligence and dexterity with which he has acquitted himself of
the commission which his Majesty has confided to him. The King
has therefore ordered me to deliver the present attestation to
serve him at all times and in all places where it may be
necessary.
“Made at Versailles, the 18th of December, 1775.
“Signed: Gravier de Vergennes.”
The matter of the papers was indeed settled; they were safe in the hands
of the government, and all uneasiness in regard to them was at an end;
not so Beaumarchais with his _amazone intéressante_. Furious to find
that his exorbitant demands upon the French government had miscarried,
d’Eon thought only of wreaking his vengeance upon Beaumarchais. After
exhausting himself with very “masculine abuse” upon his “austere friend”
(Loménie), he suddenly, with the same art with which he had avowed
himself a woman, set about convincing Beaumarchais that he was in love
with him, uttering bitter reproaches for the cruelty, hardness and
injustice with which he had treated an unhappy woman, who in a moment of
weakness had revealed herself to him. “Why,” cried this disguised
dragoon, “why did I not remember that men are good for nothing upon this
earth but to deceive the credulity of women, young and old?... I still
thought that I was only rendering justice to your merits, admiring your
talents, your generosity; I loved you already no doubt; but this
situation was still so new for me that I was very far from realizing
that love could be born in the midst of trouble and sorrow.”
In a note, M. de Loménie remarked that what there was specially
_piquant_ in this correspondence of d’Eon and Beaumarchais is that the
former, while posing as a woman, “often gives an enigmatic turn to his
phrases, as though he wished to establish for the day when the fraud
would be unveiled, that he had been able to dupe a man as clever as the
author of the _Barbier de Séville_, and that he duped him in mocking at
him to his very face, without being suspected. Beaumarchais, for his
part, amused himself at the expense of that _vieille Dragonne_ in love,
and confirmed himself more and more in the error as d’Eon more adroitly
simulated the anger of an offended old maid.”
Beaumarchais wrote to M. de Vergennes: “Everyone tells me that this
crazy woman is crazy over me. She thinks that I undervalue her, and
women never forgive similar offenses. I am very far from doing so; but
who could ever have imagined that to serve the King well in this affair,
I should have been forced to become gallant cavalier to a _capitaine de
dragons_? The adventure appears to me so ridiculous that I have all the
trouble in the world to regain my seriousness so as suitably to finish
this memoir.”
If d’Eon had the satisfaction of duping Beaumarchais in a certain sense,
he failed utterly in inducing him to loosen the strings of the royal
purse which he carried, and without which nothing was accomplished.
Finding that Beaumarchais was inexorable on this point, all the pent-up
fury of the chevalier blazed forth. He began at once addressing
interminable memoirs to the minister Vergennes, full of accusations
against his agent, couched in the coarsest and most violent language,
attributing to the latter all the epithets that fall so glibly from his
pen, “the insolence of a watchmaker’s boy, who by chance had discovered
perpetual motion.”
“Beaumarchais,” said Loménie, “received these broadsides of abuse with
the calm of a perfect gentleman: ‘She is a woman,’ he wrote to M. de
Vergennes, ‘and a woman so frightfully surrounded that I pardon her
with all my heart; she is a woman—that word says everything.’”
But exactly this was what the chevalier did not want; he did not want to
be pardoned by Beaumarchais; he wanted a quarrel with him, and to have
his accusations credited by the minister. He succeeded in neither of his
objects, although his resentment and his desire for revenge augmented
rather than diminished with time. Returned to France, he openly accused
Beaumarchais of having retained for himself money that was destined for
him. His abuse was so violent that in self-defense the accused man
appealed for justification to the minister, and received the following
letter, which bears date of January 10th, 1778:
“I have received, Monsieur, your letter of the 3rd of this month,
and I have not been able to see without surprise that the
demoiselle d’Eon imputes to you having appropriated to yourself
to her prejudice the funds which she supposes to have been
destined for her. I have difficulty in believing, Monsieur, that
this demoiselle has been guilty of an accusation so calumnious;
but if she has done so, you should not have the slightest
disquietude or be in the least affected; you have the gage and
the guarantee of your innocence in the account which you have
given of your management of the affair, in the most approved
form, founded upon the most authentic titles, and in the
discharge which I have given you of the approval of the King. Far
from the possibility of your disinterestedness being suspected, I
have not forgotten, Monsieur, that you made no account of your
personal expenses, and that you never allowed me to perceive any
other interest than to facilitate to the demoiselle d’Eon the
means of returning to her native land.
“I am very perfectly, Monsieur, your very humble and very
obedient servitor,
“De Vergennes.”
Beaumarchais was at this time far too deeply engaged in his gigantic
mercantile operations to be seriously disturbed by the accusations of
the Chevalier d’Eon. Far greater difficulties were to overwhelm him, and
still more signal ingratitude was to be his portion. He will accept that
too, in very much the same spirit in which he has accepted all the rest.