D’Eon (_la citoyenne Geneviève_) offers her services
to the Legislative Assembly—Is ordered to join
General Dumouriez—Detained in England—Her English
friends—Fences in public—Is seriously wounded—Distressing
times—Last days—Death—Autopsy and appearance of the
body—Administration of property—General character—Pursuits
and habits late in life—Maxims on religion—Coldness of
temperament—Reflections—Fugitive pieces.
Having satisfied some of her creditors with the proceeds of the sale,
D’Eon occupied herself in packing the remainder of her effects in fifteen
cases for conveyance to France. War had been declared, and the Citoyenne
Geneviève at once sent her nephew O’Gorman to Paris, with the offers
of her services in the form of a petition addressed to the Legislative
Assembly, an extract from which was read at a sitting of that body. It
stated that although she had worn the dress of a woman for fifteen years,
she had never forgotten that she was formerly a soldier; that since the
Revolution she felt her military ardour revive, and demanded, instead
of her cap and petticoats, her helmet, sabre, horse, and the rank in
the army to which her seniority, her services, and her wounds entitled
her; and she also requested permission to raise a legion of volunteers.
Unconnected with any party, she had no desire to brandish her sword in
procession in the streets of Paris, and wished for nothing but actual
service—war nobly made and courageously supported.
‘In my eager impatience,’ she continued, ‘I have sold
everything but my uniform, and the sword I wore in the last
war, which I wish again to wear in the present. Of my library
nothing remains but the shelves,[369] and the MSS. of Marshal
Vauban, which I have preserved as an offering to the National
Assembly, for the glory of my country, and the instruction
of the brave generals employed in her defence. I have been
the sport of nature, of fortune, of war, of peace, of men and
women, of the malice and intrigue of Courts. I have passed
successively from the state of a girl to that of a boy, from
the state of a man to that of a woman. I have experienced the
strange vicissitudes of human life. Soon, I hope, with arms in
my hand, I shall fly on the wings of liberty and victory to
fight and die for the nation, the law, and the King.’
This petition, the reading of which was interrupted by repeated bursts
of applause, was ordered to be honourably mentioned in the minutes, and
referred to the military committee.[370]
[Sidenote: UNDER THE ORDERS OF THE REPUBLIC.]
Early in the following year the Citoyenne Geneviève, in a transport of
delight, informed her friend, M. Beauvais,[371] that in consequence
of instructions received from the Minister of War for the Republic of
France, she was about to proceed to Paris, thence to join the army of
General Dumouriez,[372] and begged leave to forward to his care six cases
for despatch to France, _viâ_ Rouen or Havre de Grace, as she might
determine after her arrival in that country. Nine other cases were at
the same time sent to Mr. Christie, who had promised to find room for
them. She was also invited by the ladies of Paris to return to them,
the invitation, dated in the month of April, having been entrusted for
personal delivery to her old friend, Captain Arden, of the Royal Navy.
The Chevalière did not return to France, having been detained in all
probability by her creditors, who would have acted with greater wisdom
and profit to themselves had they trusted to her honour, and left her
free to seek for better days under the changed fortunes of her country.
It was doubtlessly her late surrender of State papers, and the nature
of their contents,[373] that had influenced the administrators of
the Republic in her favour; but her right to a pension was no longer
recognised under the new form of Government in France, her property
had been confiscated, and she was thus left without resources of any
description, now verging on her sixty-fifth year. The Chevalière appears
to have existed at this time chiefly upon the hospitality of her friends,
there being amongst those who entertained her more frequently the names
of Lady Constable, Mr. Christie, Lord and Lady Glencairn, Lady Wallis
(sister to the Duchess of Gordon), Colonel and Mrs. Kemys-Tynte, General
Melville, General Rainsford, at whose house she met Horne Tooke and
Paine; Mr. Fitzmaurice (brother of Lord Lansdowne), Colonel Macbean, of
the Artillery; Mr. Lockhart, banker, Pall Mall; Mr. Dent, banker, Clarges
Street; Sir William Ffloyd, Count Zenobio, envoy from Venice; Colonel du
Bathe, M. Hirsinger, Chargé d’Affaires from France, &c. &c.
By the end of the year 1792 the Chevalière’s remaining means and credit
were completely exhausted, and there was no alternative but to make
public exhibition of her pre-eminent skill in fencing, a resolution
in which she appears to have been supported by Mrs. Bateman, the
noted actress and female fencer. Her first appearance, in a series of
performances, was at a _déjeuner_ given by Mrs. Bateman in her house,
Soho Square, to a party of English and French officers of both services,
several ‘literary characters, and gentlemen of first-rate stage talents,’
upon which occasion, as announced in the papers,
‘Sir George Kelly pushed _carte_ and _tierce_ with Mademoiselle
D’Eon to the great entertainment of the company. An assault
between Captain Walmsley and Mademoiselle D’Eon concluded this
scientific display, and it was astonishing to observe with
what vigour the captain’s repeated thrusts were repulsed.
The assault lasted nearly fifteen minutes, during which time
Mademoiselle D’Eon did not appear to be out of breath; she only
once exclaimed, “_Ah! mes jambes!_” which was when the conflict
had subsided. This celebrated character cannot be termed
_Madame Egalité_, for in this, as in any other country, she has
not her equal.’[374]
_January 22._—She was next invited to an _Assaut d’armes_ with Captain
Walmsley, at Mr. Towneley’s house in Devonshire Place, when one hundred
guests were present, nearly all of whom were Roman Catholics.
[Sidenote: ‘CUTTING HER BREAD WITH HER SWORD.’]
_February 11._—Fenced Captain Walmsley at the Club d’Armes, Brewer
Street, and although very much indisposed, astonished numerous spectators
with her science and activity. The captain was foiled four or five
times successively, and it was not till the female Chevalier was nearly
exhausted that he had the opportunity of a retort. Confident of success,
Mademoiselle D’Eon refused the mask, of which her opponent availed
himself.[374]
_May 30._—Fences at the Haymarket on Mrs. Bateman’s benefit night. Never,
since the death of Garrick, had the house been so full.
_June 26._—Fences at the Ranelagh, in the presence of the Prince of Wales
and Duke of Gloucester.
_August 23._—Fences with Mr. Bateman and his son.
_September._—Fences with Mrs. Bateman and an English officer, under the
patronage of the Prince of Wales, who sat in the stage box (Brighton
theatre) with Mrs. Fitzherbert and Miss Piggot.
_October 19._—Fences at her own benefit in the theatre, Margate, a
prologue being spoken by Mrs. Bateman.
_November 2._—Fences at the Assembly Rooms, Deal.
_November 11_ and _21_.—Fences at the theatre, Dover.
_November 30._—Fences at the Fountain Inn, Canterbury.
After which, Mrs. Bateman[375] and the Chevalière, who had been on a
professional tour together, returned to London.
In the Chevalière’s journals, from which the above dates are taken,[376]
there appear two entries only during the year 1794 of her having publicly
exhibited—at Ranelagh on May 26, and at the Brighton theatre on August 8.
In 1795, she fenced at the Lower Rooms (Bath?) on April 24, at Birmingham
on July 6, and at Worcester on August 13. In January 1796, she performed
in the Lower Rooms, Bath, under the patronage of the colonel and officers
of the Essex Dragoons, whose band was in attendance, Bath still being
what it had been for many years, incomparably the most fashionable and
favourite watering-place in England, and frequented by people of all
classes of society. After giving four performances, D’Eon travelled to
Oxford for April 22 and three other evenings, thence to Southampton to
keep an engagement on August 26, when an unlucky accident brought to an
end, for ever, these exhibitions of her skill.
[Sidenote: A DANGEROUS WOUND.]
In receiving a thrust from her adversary that evening, the foil broke
off, inflicting a serious wound, by which she was completely disabled. It
is well to reproduce her address to the public upon that occasion, and
the surgical certificate given to satisfy that public; the first, because
it so very clearly, and in her own words, exposes her sad necessities;
the second, because it is evident that the physician and surgeons who
examined the wound were satisfied with regard to the sex of their patient.
‘Mademoiselle D’Eon takes this Opportunity of returning her
sincerest and respectful Thanks to the Benevolent Gentry of
the Town and Neighbourhood, for having honoured her with their
Presence at her late GRAND ASSAULT D’ARMES; and also for the
kind Interest they were so good as to take in the dangerous
Wound she received that Day. Alas! She is now obliged _to cut
her Bread with her Sword_; which is indeed to her a Bread full
of Repugnancy and Bitterness, that Necessity alone can make her
swallow. But preferring that Shift so unfit for her sex, and
so against her Feelings, at the Age of Sixty-nine, to a State
of Dependence, whilst she has Strength to hold a Sword she is
forced to make it useful, to the Support of an unhappy and
injured Woman; bathed, as it often may be with Truth said, with
her Tears. Her Misfortunes began with her Birth, and are only
likely to end with her Life. The Friends Prosperity had given
her, Adversity has deprived her of.’
* * * * *
‘WE CERTIFY, _that having been present at a_ Grand Assault
d’Armes, or Fencing-Match, _exhibited by Mademoiselle D’Eon in
public, on Friday, August 26, at the Long Rooms, Southampton,
we witnessed her receiving a dangerous Thrust from the Foul
of her Antagonist, the Button having broken off, unperceived,
about an Inch from the Extremity. On Examination, the Wound
was found to be situated in the Arm-pit, on the Right Side,
extending itself laterally about four Inches. The muscular
Irritation, in Consequence of this Accident, occasioned intense
Pain for some Days, which she sustained with the utmost
Fortitude, Patience, and Resignation._[377]
‘J. MACKIE, M.D.
‘P. BERNARD.
‘H. CORBIN. Surgeons.’
‘Southampton, September 6, 1796.’
D’Eon had to keep her bed for four months, and after being removed to
London was confined, through great debility, to the house, which she
left four times only during the next four years, and then only in a
coach. She spent her long convalescence with Mrs. Mary Cole[378] at her
own invitation, an old friend from whom she never again parted, and
these two thereafter shared alike in each other’s sorrows, for of joys
they had none! ‘My life was spent in eating, drinking, and sleeping,
praying, writing, and at work with Mrs. Cole, repairing linen, gowns, and
head-dresses.’
The Chevalière was in the habit of pawning her diamonds from time
to time when hard pressed, taking care to redeem and keep them in
reserve until she could dispose of them at a fair price. In 1799, being
absolutely obliged to part with those jewels, after failing to treat
with Rundell and his friend Sharp, the well-known jewellers, she made
some satisfactory arrangement with a Mr. Moses, who called to see them.
After this, it may be said that D’Eon lived entirely upon charity.
Forced to give up the chambers she had occupied in Brewer Street during
thirty-three years, she went to stay for a time with Colonel Thornton, on
the Surrey side of the Thames, and then took up her residence permanently
with Mrs. Cole, first at 33 Westminster Bridge Road, then at 5 Mead’s
Place, opposite to the Apollo Gardens, and near the Asylum, Lambeth, and
finally at 26 New Milman Street, Foundling Hospital. Her two nephews,
Major O’Gorman, and Captain Augustus O’Gorman of the 18th regiment of
foot, called to see her occasionally, but it does not appear that they
ever afforded any relief or comfort to their aged aunt, who had been in
the habit of assisting them very materially in their younger days.
[Sidenote: PASSPORT TO FRANCE.]
D’Eon had never abandoned the idea of possibly returning to France, the
Treaty of Amiens and the First Consulate seeming to afford a glimmer of
hope. She had made some kind of declaration before M. Otto, the French
minister plenipotentiary, on the 7th Fructidor (August 24), 1802, which
resulted in her being supplied with a passport to Paris and Tonnerre,
good for three decades (thirty days), dated the 25th Brumaire (November
15) of the same year, and she received five pounds from Mr. R. Slade
‘to enable her to return to her country;’ but she remained hopelessly
involved, as appears from several touching entries in her note-book,
of which we quote two. M. Blacher, the exiled _curé_ of St. Martin le
Gérard in the diocese of Constance, called at the house of the sheriff’s
officer for Surrey, on November 15, 1804, and inquired if it was true
that Mademoiselle D’Eon was in detention. Upon learning that she had been
in custody five months, and only just set at liberty, the _curé_ asked
to see her, and being shown into the Chevalière’s chamber, said that he
had come at the instance of an English lady to know the particulars of
her arrest. On taking his leave, and pleading that he also was an exile
and poor, he quietly placed on the table a gold seven-shilling piece
which he refused to take up again, although pressed to do so by D’Eon.
Acknowledging the receipt of ten guineas from the Marchioness Townshend,
D’Eon wrote, July 18, 1805:—
‘This relief is a gift from Heaven which comes to me at the
right moment, in the sorrow of my great age and of the great
revolution that has taken place in my country, and which has,
at one blow, swallowed up my little property in Burgundy, and
the pensions I had received from Louis XV. and Louis XVI.’
The note was signed: _Chevalier D’Eon, who has not quitted his bed, his
room, or his house nine times during the last nine years_.
Writing to Major Clive, M.P.,[379] she complains of her reduced
circumstances, and of having lost her all by the French Revolution, she
cannot say, why?
‘It is a secret hidden, I will not say in the womb of
Providence, but in the foolishness of the French, who, like
weather-cocks, turn to every wind.’[380]
Amongst those who occasionally supplied her with funds, or whose
attentions the Chevalière more particularly appreciated, were Mrs.
Crawford, of Hertford Street, Mayfair, a daughter of Mrs. Holland; the
Misses Dodwell; Mrs. Tryon, of Glaston, Uppingham; Colonel Kemys-Tynte;
and Miss Shirley, a natural daughter of Admiral Shirley. The good Queen
Charlotte had never forgotten her, and she enjoyed an annuity of fifty
pounds from the Duke of Queensberry.
[Sidenote: DEATH.]
For the two last years of her life, D’Eon was almost bed-ridden through
infirmity, but affectionately nursed and tended by Mrs. Cole. About a
year before her death she sent for Père Elisée, formerly surgeon to
the ‘Pères de la Charité’ at Grenoble, who was enjoying a comfortable
allowance from the Duke of Queensberry as his grace’s physician, and with
whom he dined almost daily.[381] Elisée and Dr. Perigalese attended her
as her strength failed from day to day, and until she quietly expired at
10 P.M. of May 21, 1810.
When the last offices were being performed to the remains of her
deceased friend, Mrs. Cole learnt for the first time, and to her
utter astonishment, that her late most intimate companion was a man.
Upon making his appearance the following morning, Père Elisée equally
expressed his great surprise, and at once recommended the expediency
of the Chevalier’s sex being professionally determined; the body was
accordingly dissected in the presence of several medical gentlemen, the
Earl of Yarborough, Sir Sidney Smith, the Honourable Mr. Lyttleton, Mr.
Douglas, and other persons of consideration, the following certificate
being forthwith made public:—
‘I hereby certify that I have inspected and dissected the body
of the Chevalier D’Eon, in the presence of Mr. Adair, Mr.
Wilson, and Le Père Elisée, and have found the male organs in
every respect perfectly formed.[382]
‘(Signed) ‘T. COPELAND,
‘Surgeon, Golden Square.’
‘May 23, 1810.’
In the Slade collection of autograph papers at the British Museum is
preserved this letter:—
‘My dear Sir,—Introduced by a friend of the late Chevalier
D’Eon, I attended in the evening of yesterday at lodgings in
two pair of stairs at No. 26 New Milman Street, Foundling
Hospital, and being permitted to inspect the corpse, can assure
you that the late Chevalier, called when living, Mademoiselle
D’Eon, had the visible organs of generation of a male, and
was a very man. Mrs. Cole, with whom he lived for many years,
being as well as the Chevalier aged above eighty, assured me
that it was with the utmost astonishment that she received
the information, just after her companion’s death, that he, a
Mademoiselle D’Eon as she called him, was discovered to be as
I saw him—a man—that she did not recover the shock for many
hours. The above, being interesting to you, as you can have no
doubt of its authenticity, I have sent in writing. The Prince
de Conti, &c. &c. had attended on the same day at the lodgings.
‘Yours very truly,
‘GEO. SILK,
‘Notary Public.’
‘Doctors’ Commons, May 27, 1810.
‘Robert Slade, Esq.’
The body was privately interred in the churchyard of St. Pancras on the
morning of May 28, the coffin being inscribed, ‘Charles Geneviève Louis
Auguste André Timothée D’Eon de Beaumont. Né 17 Octobre, 1727, mort 21
Mai, 1810.’
Before the devastating spade and shovel of the Midland Railway Company
had commenced its work in 1868, to make a cutting through the churchyard
at St. Pancras, a slab, _in situ_, was to be seen bearing this
inscription:
CHARLES GENEVIEVE LOUISE AUGUSTE ANDRE
TIMOTHEE D’EON DE BEAUMONT,
DIED, MAY 21; BURIED, MAY 28, 1810,
AGED 83 YEARS.[383]
but, like numerous other monuments, it has disappeared,[384] ‘and the
place thereof shall know it no more.’
[Sidenote: APPEARANCE OF THE BODY.]
A cast was taken after death, of which an engraving was made, and a
tinted engraving of the _torso_, from a drawing by C. Turner, was also
published, with the surgical attestation as to sex. The body presented
unusual roundness in the formation of limbs; the appearance of a beard
was very slight, and hair of so light a colour as to be scarcely
perceptible on the arms, legs, and chest. The throat was by no means
masculine; shoulders square and good; breast remarkably full; arms,
hands, and fingers, those of a stout female; hips very small, and legs
and feet corresponding with arms.
So early as 1763, D’Eon had a tendency to being round-shouldered, a
deformity induced by much sedentary work, but that did not greatly
increase with years, or interfere with his carriage, which was good. The
low body, in red cloth, lined with coarse canvas, of one of the last
gowns he wore, exhibits dimensions showing the obesity of his condition
at death.
Circumference at the breast 38 inches.
” at the waist 31 ”
Depth of centre whalebone in front 16½ ”
” ” ” at the back, pierced for lacing 14 ”
Diameter of arm-hole 9 ”
This garment is stiffened with seven whalebones; three being in front,
one upon each side, from arm-pit to waist, and two behind for lacing.[385]
D’Eon left a holograph will of some length, preceded by a preamble, and
appointed Sir Sidney Smith to be his executor, but the will was unsigned.
The preamble is headed, _Soli Deo Gloria et Honor_, and the testament
commencing, _Mors mihi lucrum_, ends with these four lines:—
‘Nu du ciel je suis descendu
Et nu je suis sous cette pierre,
Donc pour avoir vécu sur terre,
Je n’ai ni gagné ni perdu.’
The preamble directs:—
‘When God will have received my soul, inter my body within the
coffin upon which I sleep. There you will find the articles
with which I wish to be buried, viz., a large woollen blanket
in which to wrap me up according to custom in England. If I
die in London, bury me at St. Pancras near my cousin D’Eon de
Mouloise, who died in 1765 in London, whither he was sent by
the late Count de Broglio to watch over my person and papers.
If I die in Switzerland, I desire to be buried in the garden
of the Hermitage at Friburg. If I die in Paris, I desire to be
buried in the cemetery of the old church of St. Geneviève, my
patroness. If I die at Tonnerre, I desire to be buried in my
mother’s grave. Being in my coffin, place my New Testament near
my heart, and between my hands joined together in supplication,
my Christ, and my Imitation of Jesus Christ, whom I have so
badly imitated.’
After bequeathing his estates (?) at Chambeaudon, Tissey, and at the
chapel Flogny, to his native town, Tonnerre, for a certain purpose
distinctly specified, he leaves to his three nephews O’Gorman the sum of
sixty thousand livres, owed to him by their father, his brother-in-law,
the Chevalier O’Gorman.
[Sidenote: ADMINISTRATION OF EFFECTS.]
On August 14, 1811, administration of the goods and chattels (value
300_l._) of the Chevalier D’Eon, bachelor, deceased, was granted to
Thomas William Plummer, Esq., the lawful attorney of Lewis Augustus
O’Gorman, residing at Cadiz, the nephew and one of the next of kin of the
deceased. The sale of his library, which included five hundred editions
of Horace (see note, p. 323), was held at Mr. Christie’s rooms on
February 19, 1813, the proceeds amounting to 313_l._ This library and his
own MSS. included all the Chevalier’s possessions. The latter, refused
in all probability by Mr. O’Gorman at Cadiz, on account of the expense
that would be entailed in their transport, appear to have been divided
amongst Père Elisée, Mr. Christie, and others who had most befriended the
destitute exile.
What further remains to be said of the Chevalier D’Eon will be briefly
and exhaustively done.
Writing to the Bishop de Langres, Seigneur de Montmorin, D’Eon sums up
very curtly a sketch of himself:—
‘Whatever my troubles, I never despair. I am inflexible in
my principles, which I believe to be those of honour and of
virtue. As a rule, I submit myself in all things to the will
of God. Summer succeeds winter, night is followed by day,
after a storm comes a calm! Of what use would my faith be, did
I not live in hope? I will strive to be a man of character, and
practise perseverance, and I shall meet with solace in good
time.’[386]
Let us now turn to one of his contemporaries and to those personally
acquainted with him, and see what they have recorded.
‘This ambiguous creature,’ says Lacretelle, ‘had been by
turns and sometimes simultaneously, a diplomatist, student,
statesman, jurisconsult, and soldier. Few of his contemporaries
devoted themselves so much to study and manly exercise. His
mind was reasoning and profound, without being elegant; he
was of a robust constitution and endured to all kinds of
fatigue; his face was repulsively coarse. Of an unmanageable
disposition, he was a pertinacious quarreller. There was one
blemish in his courage—it was restless impatience that had
constituted him almost a professed duellist.’[387] ‘As a
soldier,’ says his intended biographer,[388] ‘his personal
courage and thorough knowledge of the military profession
had distinguished him on many occasions, and in the art of
fencing his skill was eminently conspicuous. His political
reputation was sufficiently established, not only by the public
missions in which he was employed, but also by the confidential
situations he maintained in the secret correspondence of Louis
XV., whose private protection and support he continued to
enjoy, even during the inveterate persecution he experienced
from the ministers of the French Court. In private life D’Eon
was much esteemed, not only as a man, but during his assumed
character of a woman; and though his natural inclinations, and
the restraint he must ever have felt himself under, on account
of his concealed sex, led him very much into retirement, yet
in those societies where he did mix, his suavity of manner
and obliging disposition always rendered him a welcome guest,
whilst his various attainments, and the discordant characters
he had sustained, gave to his person, especially as a supposed
female, a degree of interest rarely excited by any individual.
The shades in his character were, most inflexible tenacity of
disposition, and a great degree of pride and self-opinion;
general distrust and suspicion of others, and violence of
temper which could brook no opposition. To these failings may
be traced the principal misfortunes of his life; a life of much
labour and suffering, mixed with very little repose.’[389]
John Taylor had met the Chevalier in his advanced life at Mr. Angelo’s,
when he found that his former captivating manners must have undergone
great alteration, for, although dressed as a woman, he spoke and acted
with all the roughness of a veteran soldier. He was generally considered
to be most intelligent, full of anecdote and fertile conversation, and it
was believed that his name and extraordinary appearance would never be
forgotten.
[Sidenote: TASTES AND HABITS.]
As to the tastes and habits of our subject, he certainly through life
eschewed low society of whatsoever class. He was fond of good living, and
in his palmy days kept his cellar well stocked with expensive Burgundies
and Champagnes. He was hospitable and charitable, never forgetting more
especially his poor relations; but it does not appear that he ever had
the generosity to admit a fault to his neighbour, although frequently
confessing his imperfections to God. He was an accepted free-mason at
the Lodge of Immortality at the Crown and Anchor in the Strand, not very
zealous in his attendance. As a woman he rarely left the house except
when socially called, was a confirmed smoker, and no doubt employed
cosmetics and wore feminine garments other than stays, as we are led to
believe by the numerous cuttings of newspaper advertisements he has left
behind. (A small red cross marked every piece of linen.) He spent his
leisure indulging largely in writing, and in the study of his favourite
authors, such as Cicero, Lucretius, Sallust, Virgil, Horace, Ovid,
Juvenal, Tacitus—La Fontaine, Boileau, Racine, and Voltaire—Swift, and
Addison from whom I have found quoted the apothegm that must have been
like salve to his turbulent spirit: ‘A disturbed liberty is preferable
to quiescent slavery.’ He was fond of reading the Psalms, frequently
transcribing passages adapted to his changed condition and circumstances,
and had perhaps realised—but how much too late!—his neglect of the
admonition: ‘Put not your trust in princes’ ... when, in writing his
will, he expressed the hope that he might be able to retire to the
Hermitage at Friburg, there to forget the world, and devote himself
solely to God, ‘alone worthy of his homage.’
‘In religion,’ continues the intended biographer, ‘the
Chevalier was a sincere Catholic, but divested of all bigotry;
few were so well acquainted with the biblical writings or
devoted more time to the study of religious subjects.’
[Sidenote: SENTIMENTS ON RELIGION.]
A few extracts from the voluminous MSS. on sacred subjects in the
Christie collection, should suffice to persuade us that D’Eon had indeed
studied the Holy Scriptures, and faithfully interpreted, generally
speaking, the doctrine of our Lord; but without entirely divesting
himself of some of the teachings of the Church of Rome, upon whose
servants he unsparingly casts obloquy similar to that heaped upon their
successors at the present day, in both hemispheres; for there is no
exaggeration whatever in asserting that it is in Great Britain alone,
where the spirit of ‘fair play’ rules every heart, that the Romish
priesthood enjoys anything like consideration at the hands of its fellow
subjects at large.
‘1. I trust that wise measures will be taken for diminishing
the large number of religionists of both sexes, who are
depopulating the State to people monasteries, and that mankind
will at last be persuaded of the preferableness of serving
their King and country, to becoming voluntary eunuchs,
unserviceable to the world, and frequently useless in the cause
of religion.
‘2. It is entirely repugnant to common sense, to the Word
of God, and to custom in the primitive church, that public
prayers should be offered up in public places, in a tongue not
understood by those assembled for prayer.
‘3. Were every priest, every confessor, an angel upon earth, I
should advise everybody to confess; but as the greater number
are demons, and men-wolves disguised in lamb-skins, I do not
recommend men to do so—still less women—and still less again,
young girls. Let all read the gospels, and especially the
epistles of St. Paul; let them retire into their innermost
chamber, let them confess their sins to God, abase themselves
before Him, repair their faults, and exhort themselves to lead
a better life.
‘4. In Catholic countries, priests and apothecaries alike tease
the sick.
‘5. I see in the Church of Rome a chronological succession of
the apostles of Jesus Christ, but I do not see the hereditary
succession to their virtues. If Catholic priests are the
precious depositaries of faith, it is to be found on their lips
rather than in their hearts, or else they conceal the treasure
so effectually that it is impossible to discover it in their
conduct. Thus their faith, as well as their charity, is dead
rather than living.
‘6. Did religion not exist, independently of priests and monks,
it would have been annihilated long since.
‘7. Although he is the head of the Church, the Pope will soon
be obliged to remain satisfied with his spiritual power, and
renounce all temporal power so incompatible with the maxims of
Christ.
‘8. Ecclesiastics have no difficulty in reminding themselves
that they are but men, and thus forget they are priests.
‘9. The study of the Holy Scriptures cannot be too strongly
recommended, for it is the quickest and safest mode of
becoming acquainted with the New Testament by means of the Old
Testament, and with the Old Testament by means of the New,
which is the fulfilment of prophecy. I have spent a portion of
my life in reading commentaries on the Bible, chiefly those on
the New Testament, and have found that commentators express
themselves a hundred times less lucidly and with less force,
than does the text itself, of the evangelists and apostles. Of
what use, therefore, can be the piles of commentaries in the
libraries of the Vatican, at Paris, Vienna, Madrid, London,
Oxford, Cambridge, &c., except for burning, if they only serve
to guide us by their obscure light, and are pernicious to the
text.’[390]
About the year 1764 D’Eon wrote:—
‘Since the time when I discovered that Love, the comforter of
the human race, the regulator of the universe ... Love, that
ruler of hearts, that soul of our soul, to be worth no more
than a kiss and twenty kicks ... I have never wished for wife
or mistress.’
And later, in 1777, upon assuming the garb of a female:—
‘... I have never mixed myself up with those fond of dancing
and similar amusements, and have never had anything to do with
people of light character, who conduct themselves indiscreetly,
and give way to their passions, following the maxims of the
world.’[391]
The most perfect stranger to Charles XII. was Love! They had never
nudged one another! This was not the case with the Chevalier D’Eon,
who resembled Swift perhaps in more ways than one. In Mademoiselle
Constance de Courcelles and the Countess de Rochefort (the latter, by
the way, was a young widow), D’Eon had his Stella (short of wedlock) and
Vanessa. Of the scenes of their love, we know nothing. He may have had a
dozen Varinas, but I very much doubt it. Of Mademoiselle de Courcelles’
letters he preserved a large packet for twenty years, and it may be,
for longer, after their correspondence had ceased upon his assuming
female attire. The Duke de Nivernois was in the habit of teasing him by
introducing the name of the Countess, but this was the shortest-lived
flirtation of the two, because the Chevalier remained in England and
the Countess resided chiefly in France. Without actually avoiding the
society of ladies, he never sought it—_he could not speak of that he did
not feel_—and was never known, in the course of his career, to have been
engaged in any amorous adventure or affair of gallantry as it was termed,
whether at Court or in the camp, and this in an age when courtiers, like
their sovereigns, were strangely given to profligacy. The old Marquis
de l’Hôpital, an antiquated debauchee, who will be remembered as French
ambassador at St. Petersburg, frequently twitted D’Eon on his cold
temperament, but the latter preferred close application to his duty,
working early and late, with fencing for recreation, to any kind of
unsavoury indulgence. He never sought to wrong the decencies of life.
[Sidenote: DISPASSIONATE TEMPERAMENT.]
I am not aware that Swift’s unfeeling treatment of the two women he after
a fashion loved has ever been satisfactorily explained; whereas D’Eon
himself, upon various occasions, assigns to physical causes his state of
insensibility. Two examples will probably suffice:—
‘I am sufficiently mortified at being what nature has made
me, and that the dispassion of my natural temperament should
induce my friends to imagine in their innocence, and this in
France, in Russia, and in England, that I am of the female sex.
The malice of my enemies has confirmed all this....’ ‘If the
Great Master of the universe has not endowed me with all the
external vigour of manhood, He has amply made amends by gifting
my head and heart. I am what the hands of God have made me;
satisfied with my weakness, I would not exchange it for the
dangerous strength of Marshal Saxe, even were it in my power to
do so.’[392]
Most accounts agree, the one being taken from the other, that D’Eon’s
attainments included an acquaintance with ancient and modern languages.
That this was not the case is evidenced by the contents of his library
and the almost complete absence, amongst his MSS., of any note or
quotation except in French or Latin; while forty years’ residence in
England did not suffice to teach him English.
[Sidenote: REFLECTIONS.]
A few reflections, written at intervals of time, might assist us in
passing judgment on a life of so rare adventure, for t’were well, if
we would be just, to estimate each touch of character at its true
proportions, for entry whether on the credit or on the debtor side of the
moralist’s ledger.
‘1. So long as a kingdom is under the domination of a woman,
all will go well. Why? Because it is then that men will govern.
(Written at St. Petersburg.)
‘2. Nothing so much shows the sound judgment of a man, as to
know how to choose between two evils.
‘3. Freedom may be preserved, even where there is esteem and
regard.
‘4. An energetic will suffices to put into execution an object
in view, but should anything chance to check it, force must
absolutely be resorted to; and when I speak of force, I mean
the force that is to be obtained from the consideration in
which one is held, by those very persons who have occasioned
the wrong sought to be remedied, and of which they cannot
deprive you since it already belongs to you, notwithstanding
any personal dislike they may entertain, and which has arisen
solely because of the opposition to their wishes.
‘5. It is the destiny of popular governments to be believed in
only when they make themselves felt; and it is often to their
interest and honour rather to make themselves believed in than
felt.
‘6. Power in a people is to be deplored, since they do not
consider themselves answerable even for acts they commit in
spite of us.
‘7. Does familiarity with great dangers accustom us to be ready
in resources? Well, do brilliant motives, glory, exertions,
great sights, the destiny of nations in one’s power, raise
humanity and elevate the soul by the vigorous exercise of all
its faculties?’
And here we have a reflection after Raphael Aben-Ezra’s own heart!
‘8. ’Tis said, truthfully enough, that death makes all men
equal; but it might also be said, with even greater truth,
that it is his origin should humiliate man; for we are nothing
but vile insects, more agile and more fortunate than thousands
of millions of other similar insects, who have succeeded in
insinuating ourselves into worthless vehicles where we have
grown, and where we have become worthy of receiving from God a
soul, that raises us to the dignity of humanity.
‘9. The absent are ever in the wrong, and untruths told with
assurance easily silence truths told with disdain.
‘10. He who writes is certain to have as many judges as
readers; but among this great number of judges, how many, may
it be said, are really competent?
‘11. A master-mind looks upon minor incidents as victims to be
sacrificed to affairs of greater importance.
‘12. To be above the caprice of fortune, not to be moved by her
smiles or frowns, is to be high-souled. They who too easily
betray their joy or sorrow, according to circumstances, possess
neither strength of character nor courage, whatever their other
merits.
‘13. In France, we can construct perfectly good ships of war,
but we cannot turn out efficient naval officers. This is the
great misfortune in our country, which will ever give to the
English the superiority at sea, through the excellence of
their seamen and naval officers. In England, the son of the
wealthiest and greatest nobleman will commence life as a sailor
in a vessel of war under a good officer—but notwithstanding his
influence, the king of France will never be able to do away
with the prejudices and pride of our nobles, who aspire to
being sea officers without knowing how to sail, even on fresh
water.’
[Sidenote: FUGITIVE PIECES.]
From the first moment when society, not in England only, stood perplexed
at the enigma presented in the person of the Chevalière D’Eon, a variety
of fugitive pieces, some acrimonious, others laudatory, of which she
was the subject, appeared in the public prints on both sides of the
Channel. With the necessarily limited selections for which we can find
space, because we believe they form a fit sequel to the history of our
archetype, we gratefully take leave of the reader, who will have had the
kindness to accompany us thus far.
_Verses believed to have been written by an eminent Doctor of Divinity of
the University of Oxford, and addressed to a friend of the Chevalier._
Exul ades, nimium felix! tu victima veri,
Causa boni, patriæ facta, D’Eone, tua est.
Curia quondam habuit magnum Romana Catonem:
Majorem sed habet jam Gallicana suum.
_Political Register_, 1768.
_A Mademoiselle —— qui s’était déguisée en homme._
Bonjour, fripon de Chevalier,
Qui savez si bien l’art de plaire,
Que, par un bonheur singulier,
De nos beautés la plus sévère
En faveur d’un tel écolier,
Déposant son ton minaudier
Et sa sagesse grimacière,
Pourrait peut-être s’oublier,
Ou plutôt moins se contrefaire.
Mon cher, nous le savons trop bien:
(Le ciel en tout est bon et sage)
Pour un si hardi personnage,
Dans le fond vous ne valez rien.
Croyez-moi: reprenez un rôle
Que vous jouez plus sûrement:
D’un imposteur déguisement
Que votre sexe se console;
Du mien vous faites le tourment;
Et le vôtre, sur ma parole,
Vous doit son plus bel ornement.
Hélas! malheureux que nous sommes!
Vous avez tout pour nous charmer:
C’est bien être au-dessus des hommes
Que de savoir s’en faire aimer!
M. D’ARNAUD.
_Almanach des Muses_, 1771.
_Lines on hearing a greyheaded lady called Miss._
In humdrum, ancient days, the pretty name
Of Miss at twenty was exchang’d for _Dame_,
But these wise times to compliment exhort ye,
For modern Misses are full _five-and-forty_.
ELEVEN’S A NICK.
_The Westminster Gazette_,
October 8-12, 1776.
_Quatrain pour le buste de Mademoiselle D’Eon, exécuté par Madame
Falconet._
Ce marbre, où de D’Eon le buste est retracé,
A deux femmes assure une gloire immortelle;
Et par elles vaincu, l’autre sexe est forcé
D’envier à la fois l’artiste et le modèle.
M. BLIN LE SAINMORE.
_Almanach des Muses_, 1781.
_Impromptu sur Mademoiselle D’Eon, qui lui a été remis à Londres par M.
Angelo, père, maître d’armes de la famille Royale d’Angleterre._
D’EON, ce double habit, qui frappe nos regards,
Semble nous annoncer ton double caractère.
Oui, tu sus dans la paix, au milieu des hazards,
Cultiver d’une main politique et guerrière
L’olive de Minerve, et les lauriers de Mars.
Ch. MSS.
_On Mademoiselle D’Eon’s skill in fencing._
A prodigy! this Chevalier,
A most unrivalled peerless Peer
Is surely Monsieur D’Eon;
In arts of peace and war renown’d,
As well as politics profound,
And brave as Cœur-de-Lion.
In vain may time his page explore,
To find a precedent of yore,
As yet out-done by no man;
Let Britain boast her warlike sons,
Or Asia of her amazons,
While France can boast a woman.
Both sexes’ admiration thou,
A female and a manly brow,
At once so oddly met;
Say, can ye sages yet decide
Which, best or both, can D’Eon guide,
The camp or cabinet.
_Old Newspapers._
ARGUMENT.
‘Toute histoire qui n’est pas contemporaine est suspecte.’—PASCAL.
Two events in the career of the Chevalier D’Eon, undisputed by his
contemporaries, but controverted of late years, must ever give cause for
despair to biographers, so long as they seek to determine, by written
evidence alone—(1) That D’Eon went to St. Petersburg for the first
time in 1755, appearing there in the disguise of a female. (2) That he
declared himself to be a female, and permanently adopted female attire in
the year 1777, solely in obedience to the commands of Louis XVI. and his
ministers.
The objections raised by the non-contents to these earliest traditions is
based uniquely on the complete absence of any documents in their direct
support; how far such documents are indispensable the reader will judge
in the face of much incidental evidence in their favour.
Boutaric (i. 81), writing in 1866, says: ‘About the year 1755 (_vers_
1755) was conducted a negotiation (during the interrupted diplomatic
relations between France and Russia), from which the Count de Broglie
was excluded, but wherein took part a personage whose name has become
celebrated, the Chevalier D’Eon.’ It was with no greater precision, that
the Archivist of the Empire was enabled to fix the date of the Chevalier
Douglas’ departure for Russia (no great matter for surprise) seeing that
_neither amongst the national archives, nor at the ministry for foreign
affairs, are to be found any papers whatever relating to Douglas’ first
journey to Russia!_[393] A deficiency, however, that has been supplied
by Vandal (p. 263), and at p. 12 of this book upon the authority of the
British ambassador at St. Petersburg, the arrival at the Russian capital
of the King of France’s secret agent having unquestionably taken place in
October, 1755. That D’Eon went with Douglas appears from several of the
Chevalier’s indirect statements to that effect, and by some fortuitous
but very forcible testimony.
D’EON.
To the Duke de Praslin, August 28, and September 13, 1763.
Appeals earnestly for pecuniary assistance to enable him to pay
off a loan he had contracted _nine years previously_, to enable
him to proceed to Russia on duty for the King, upon his first
journey with the Chevalier Douglas, which was the origin of all
the negotiations of the Court of Versailles with that of St.
Petersburg. (See also ‘Covenant,’ p. 246.)
In the _Note_ to the Count de Guerchy, 1763, D’Eon styles
himself as having been ‘_sent to Russia with the Chevalier
Douglas for the reunion of the two Courts_,’ and being
afterwards secretary of Embassy at the Court of Elizabeth.
In the ‘Discours Préliminaire’ to the ‘Lettres, Mémoires,’
&c., published in 1764. ‘_Towards the end of the year 1755, my
destiny dragged me into diplomacy_, although I was inclined
rather for a soldier’s life.’
To Beaumarchais, January 7, 1776. (See pp. 267 and 271.) ‘You
know how I have upon six occasions flown from one end of the
world to the other, travelling night and day, _to hasten in
1755 and 1756 the reunion of France and Russia_.’
Note written in 1776. ‘I know how to conduct myself abroad ...
with the prudence and policy acquired by long experience and _a
residence of twenty-two years in foreign lands_,’ see p. 243.
To the Count de Vergennes, May 28, 1776. ‘... None but those
concerned were informed of this political intrigue, _commenced
in 1755 by the Prince de Conti and Tercier, and executed by the
Chevalier Douglas and myself only_.’
OTHER AUTHORITIES.
La Messalière, p. 74. ‘_Douglas awaited at Anhalt the arrival
of D’Eon from Paris_, and on reaching St. Petersburg they
pretended to be merchants of low degree,’ &c.
Flassan, vi. 110. ‘Woronzoff and _D’Eon were the intermediaries
in the correspondence between Louis XV. and Elizabeth_.’
The Marquis de l’Hôpital to the Duke de Choiseul, August 23,
1760. ‘The services of M. D’Eon in foreign affairs are well
known. _He has not a little contributed to the renewing of the
alliance with Russia._’
The Chevalier Douglas to M. Rouillé, St. Petersburg, 1756, ‘I
am very greatly pleased at the arrival of M. D’Eon. _I have
been long acquainted with his intelligence, his zeal, and
attachment to his work._’
‘Gazette d’Utrecht,’ No. xlii., 1757. ‘_M. D’Eon de Beaumont
who has been at work under the Chevalier Douglas, Minister
Plenipotentiary for France, during the whole time of his
negotiations with this Court, &c._ The Empress’ gift of 500
ducats is the result of the esteem and good-will he has gained
for himself at this Court during his stay.’ _St. Petersburg
Correspondence._
The Duke de Nivernois to M. de Bertin, Controller-General of
Finance, October 12, 1762. ‘_M. D’Eon has already been employed
upon several occasions at the Court of Russia, under critical
and most important circumstances._’
Royal warrant of August 25, 1775, granting permission to
Mademoiselle D’Eon to wear the cross of St. Louis in female
attire. ‘His Majesty desiring to mark by special favour
his sense of the public and secret services, in war and in
diplomacy, _which the said Mademoiselle D’Eon de Beaumont has
had the good fortune to render during upwards of twenty years,
consecutively, to the late King,’ &c._, see p. 254.
I would add under this head, for what it is worth, that the anecdotes
related by D’Eon concerning himself in Russia have been taken from a
note-book, ‘Recueil de mes Pensées,’ dated 1754.
The non-contents maintain, that until he became secretary of Embassy,
nothing was known of D’Eon. I ask in reply: How came a young, untried,
and unknown individual to be appointed secretary to the French Embassy in
Russia, during a crisis in the affairs of the two countries?
A first incitement to the persuasion that D’Eon’s earliest introduction
at St. Petersburg was in the character of a female, exists in the
portrait by La Tour. When D’Eon was in his twenty-fifth (or more probably
twenty-seventh[394]) year, La Tour was a greatly esteemed and general
favourite; he had painted a full length picture of Louis XV., and
portraits of Madame de Pompadour and many others at Court, and as it
is scarcely credible, from what we know of his circumstances in those
days, that D’Eon was in a position to employ an artist of established
reputation to paint a fancy portrait of himself for himself, and this
apart from his known innate dislike to any such travesty, we perhaps see
personified in the comely young woman at page 14, a representation of _le
petit D’Eon_, as he was expected, by the Prince de Conti, shortly to make
his appearance at the Russian capital.
In recapitulating his services to the Duke de Praslin (June 5, 1763)
D’Eon showed that when sent to Petersburg by M. Rouillé, in 1756, for
secret and important motives, reasons of policy required that certain
views entertained with regard to himself, and for which he felt some
repugnance, should be abandoned; whereupon he received the minister’s
orders to remain with Douglas until the arrival of the new ambassador.
What but a repetition of the part he played in 1755 is to be understood
from his repugnance to perform duties assigned to him! It was quite
beyond D’Eon’s power to endure from others any allusion to his effeminate
appearance or physical defects, and he studiously eschewed all reference
to his assumption of female attire, by rarely specifying his first visit
to St. Petersburg as having been in 1755, preferring to allude in general
terms to his ‘earliest journeys to Russia.’ Instances there are, as we
have shown, to the contrary, but this was at a time when there no longer
existed any object in concealing the past so very carefully, and when
admission to that effect was only too likely, as he thought, to turn to
his advantage. See p. 247 note, and p. 267.
It was not his fault, he told the Count de Broglio, if the Princess
Dashkoff assured people in England that he was a female; and it is true
that _after the arrival of that lady in London, fresh reports were
circulated tending to confirm the suspicions already entertained that the
Chevalier was indeed a woman_.
There is preserved in the public library at Tonnerre a note from the old
Marquis de l’Hôpital to D’Eon, written in a spirit of pleasantry, and
although undated, is obviously of the last half of 1759, or of the first
half of 1760.
‘Noon.
‘However great my pleasure would be at seeing you, I have
no wish, _ma chère Lia_, to have to reproach myself with
committing another folly. Therefore remain shut up until your
eyes are quite well again.... I shall perhaps call to see you,
some day after to-morrow, so soon as my lame courier will have
left. This will depend upon what the Chancellor is going to do,
and on my fancy. Adieu, _ma belle de Beaumont_. I embrace you.
L’HÔPITAL.’
‘A Monsieur D’Eon, St. Petersburg.’
Could Lia have been the name adopted by D’Eon during his disguise
in 1755, or are we to believe that it was playfully applied by the
ambassador to the secretary suffering from ophthalmia, because ‘Leah was
tender-eyed?’
The secret autograph order of Louis XV., dated October 4, 1763 (p.
104), is sufficiently significative, and can only have reference to
the Chevalier’s earliest connection with Russia, because from August,
1756, he was officially recognised as secretary of Embassy, until his
final departure for France in August, 1760, after which he fell ill of
small-pox. Early in 1761 he joined the army in the field, served as
aide-de-camp to the de Broglios throughout the campaign of that year, and
upon his return to France went on leave, whilst awaiting the appointment
of minister plenipotentiary to Russia, which, he wrote to tell his
colonel, the Marquis d’Autichamp, would take him to St. Petersburg for
the fourth time. See ‘Lettres, Mémoires,’ &c.
Madame Campan had frequently heard the Chevalier repeat to her father,
M. Genest, the contents of Louis XV.’s order, in which that monarch
separated his individuality from the person of the King of France. She
had special opportunities afterwards, as lady-in-waiting to the queen,
for becoming acquainted with D’Eon’s character during his two years’
residence at the Court of Marie Antoinette and in its precincts, and she
long survived him, dying in 1822; we may therefore legitimately assume
that had his veracity been generally mistrusted, or had she doubted
the existence of such an order, she would assuredly have qualified his
statement, unless she had cause to be satisfied that the order, which it
is pretty certain she never saw, was indeed in the King’s own hand.
Dutens’ version is to this effect. The King had a secret minister at the
several Courts, who carried out his views without the knowledge of his
ambassador. This was the position at the Court of Russia of the Chevalier
D’Eon, sent thither upon the recommendations of the Prince de Conti, who
was not even aware of his sex. He spent several months at St. Petersburg,
and was clever enough to secure presentation to the Empress Elizabeth in
the character of a female, and conclude in fifteen days an affair upon
which the ambassador had been for a long time engaged.
The earliest intimation of D’Eon’s somewhat familiar intercourse with
Elizabeth appears in the work of de la Fortelle, of whom the Chevalier
says:—‘Il m’a élevé un monument de gloire dans son grand ouvrage.’
According to this author, D’Eon was received at the Russian Court in a
secret capacity, and having succeeded in making himself agreeable in
the sight of the Empress, and secured the good-will of her favourite
minister, his consummate tact enabled him to approach the sovereign,
to converse with and gradually interest her, and having secured her
Majesty’s confidence, he prepared her mind to receive impressions
favourable to the cause he had at heart.
Did D’Eon permanently adopt female attire in 1777, solely in obedience to
the commands of Louis XVI. and his ministers?
In Kirby’s ‘Wonderful and Eccentric Museum’ is quoted from the ‘Gazette
de Santé,’ a periodical of the day, an article that appeared soon after
the Chevalier’s decease, and which we feel bound to give at length.
It is singular enough that while all Europe was making a
woman of this dubious character, there existed in Paris many
unimpeachable witnesses who would have vouched for his manhood
long before it was put in question. We have had the following
details from the Baron de Cleybrocke, who has authorised us to
publish them:—
‘The Chevalier D’Eon received his first education at M.
Tarnier’s, the schoolmaster, Rue de Nevers, Paris; there was
in that school an usher, M. Vicaire, since rector of the
University, and previously tutor to young Cleybrocke, to whom
he had often affirmed, when the question was started in London
on the sex of the Chevalier, that he had many a time conducted
D’Eon to bathe with his other scholars, and was positive that
he was a man. What reason then could have induced Government
to condemn a soldier who had obtained military orders, and
a respectable diplomatic character, to assume the dress of
a woman, when his boldness, his propensities, his constant
habits, his love intrigues, and even his beard and his figure,
gave the lie to his dress! Some politicians think that they
have found the reason of this strange conduct on the part of
the Government in the means that intriguing character had made
use of to succeed in his secret diplomacy, and which were
such, they say, that the discovery of his real sex might have
lowered the dignity of the French Government, and disturbed
the peace, as well as sullied the honour of many families, in
which D’Eon had been received with that unbounded confidence
which women grant to a woman only. They strengthen their
opinion by the report current in Paris, when the Chevalier was
ordered to assume female attire, that he had the alternative
of obeying, or ending his days in the Bastille, in consequence
of the irregularities he had committed under cover of the sex
to which he had pretended to belong, to ensure the success
of his secret diplomatic negotiations. This conjecture is
still further confirmed by the testimony of two of his former
schoolfellows, who, on hearing a report which they were
positive was unfounded, were impelled by curiosity to visit
D’Eon. They found him in bed. “What will you have me do?” said
he, when they had explained the object of their visit; “they
have ordered me to be a woman, and I wear petticoats by command
of the King.”’
From this kind of declaration D’Eon never swerved, always maintaining
that he was forced to pass for a woman, and it will be remembered
that when resisting the pressure put upon him by Beaumarchais, he
reminded that unyielding negotiator that it was Louis XV. and the Duke
d’Aiguillon, Louis XVI. and the Count de Vergennes, and the de Guerchy
family who demanded his metamorphosis.
The theory put forward by Gaillardet, that D’Eon himself confirmed the
general belief in his being a female, is based upon two passages in
letters to Beaumarchais: ‘I admit with pleasure, although with the
pain, the shame, and the tears that the avowal and admission of my own
weakness have wrung from me,’ and, ‘I have made known to you the mystery
of my sex.’ That Beaumarchais seriously believed D’Eon to be a woman
is beyond any manner of doubt, but that D’Eon confessed so much to him
spontaneously, the idea having emanated from himself, is anything but
proved, if proof rests solely on the above two short extracts. Dutens,
styled by D’Eon, ‘mon honorable ami,’ and who was well acquainted
with Beaumarchais (‘j’ai beaucoup connu Beaumarchais’), was told by
the dramatic writer that he was perfectly assured of the sex of the
extraordinary woman—but that was all! And he relates, as he had heard it,
the cause which led to the Chevalier’s change of sex.
The Countess de Guerchy attributed the death of her husband to grief,
consequent upon the ridicule with which he had been covered by the
Chevalier D’Eon, and she warned the Count de Maurepas that if D’Eon dared
to land in France, her son should await him at Calais to fight him, and
if her son fell, she had a son-in-law ready to take his place. Greatly
amused at hearing this, D’Eon was reported to have said: ‘Very well, I
will put an end to all this. I declare I am a woman.’ Unfortunately,
Dutens does not give his authority for this story, the latter part of
which is entirely inconsistent with the impatience we have seen exhibited
by D’Eon to fight young de Guerchy, and to afford him the opportunity for
avenging his father.
If we look at the order of Louis XVI., dated August 25, 1775, instructing
Beaumarchais to recover the papers out of D’Eon’s hands, we find the
latter named in the masculine gender; and although Beaumarchais
distinctly individualises D’Eon as being a woman, in none of de
Vergennes’ despatches is he spoken of otherwise than as if he were a
man, and that minister goes so far as to say that if the Chevalier would
disguise himself—‘si M. D’Eon voulait se travestir’—all should be well.
(See p. 239.)
The author of the attractive and somewhat laborious work, ‘Beaumarchais
et son Temps,’ calls attention to the piquancy in D’Eon’s letters to
Beaumarchais, acting admirably, as he does, the part of a woman concealed
under the guise of a man; at the same time adopting an ambiguous style,
as if with the view of making it clear at any such time eventually as
his fraud would be discovered, that he had been duping so astute a man
as the author of ‘Le Barbier de Seville,’ and that whilst duping him, to
his face, he was also making fun of him, without his being sensible of
it. On the other hand, Beaumarchais amused himself at the expense of the
love-sick _vieille dragonne_, becoming the more confirmed in his error,
as D’Eon continued to counterfeit the wrath of an offended old maid.
The Chevalier’s letters to Louis XVI. (Ch. MSS.) make it sufficiently
clear that the King could not have been positively assured on his
sex. In one letter D’Eon informs his Majesty that he continued to
maintain silence in respect to his position, which was so singular and
extraordinary, as to be without parallel in ancient or modern history.
He had kept his secret profoundly, because it was the secret of secrets
of the late King, and he entreated his Majesty either to allow two
Councillors of State, in whom he had implicit confidence, to write down
his depositions and the proofs to them, before he returned to France, or
permit him to publish his defence.
In another letter, the King is told that the question of sex will soon be
decided, after the Court will have restored the honour and money due to
him. ‘I can then think of settling down, and in marrying, make known to
which sex I belong.’
In a third letter, the Chevalier points out that negotiations for his
return to France were conducted from 1770 to 1775, and that his letter
to the Count de Broglio of January 1775, was sent under flying seal to
the Count de Vergennes, to enable that minister to become well acquainted
with the validity of some of his arguments, and communicate them for his
Majesty’s consideration.
Lacretelle, Taylor, and others, are unable to account for the Chevalier’s
change of sex, otherwise than that it was produced by some unexplained
intrigue, and that he was directed by the French Government to appear as
a woman, for reasons which have never been satisfactorily determined.
Voltaire wrote, that the whole affair puzzled him. He was unable to
picture to himself either D’Eon, or the ministers of his day, or the acts
of Louis XV., or what was passing then (1777). He knew nothing of any of
them. In returning, however, to the pages of Madame Campan, we seem to
find the key to the situation.
‘This strange personage,’ says that lady, ‘had for a long time
solicited permission to return to France, but it was considered
necessary to spare the family (de Guerchy) he had offended
the insult it would feel were he to make his appearance; he
was therefore compelled to resume the costume of a sex to
which everything is forgiven in France. Anxiety to see his
native country no doubt influenced him in submitting to such
a condition; but he had his revenge, for, whilst wearing a
gown with its long train, and a triple row of sleeves, he bore
himself and behaved like a grenadier, giving himself an air of
unmistakable vulgarity.’
Might not every secret in which this mystery was involved have been
hidden in the _valise_ containing ‘papers that had belonged to the King
and Court,’ given to the French minister plenipotentiary by D’Eon, on
February 1, 1792? (See note, p. 264, p. 324.)
The Count de Vergennes, the minister immediately responsible for the
ludicrous innovation, confessed to Beaumarchais his concern lest D’Eon
should make his appearance in France as a man, his enemies being on the
alert, and not likely to forgive him easily for all he had said of them;
and when writing to the Chevalier, two years later, he impressed upon him
the conditions, should he think of returning to his native land. (See p.
283.)
The question has also arisen—Granted that D’Eon was obliged to appear as
a woman, by command of King and ministers, such being the stipulation
for his receiving the royal grant of twelve thousand livres, annually;
why, after the fall of the monarchy and having lost all by the French
Revolution, did he continue in the anomalous character of a female?
We, in England, are able to understand, that to one who had spent so
many years of his life in this country, and had become familiar with
the sentiments and susceptibilities of English men and women, there was
no choice. It had long been known and admitted that the Chevalière had
been treated by French ministers with peculiar harshness, and she was
seen to be reduced to absolute want at the advanced age of sixty-four!
Under circumstances such as these, he must have felt that so long as
he was believed to be a female, commiseration and assistance were to
be expected; but to declare himself a man, after having adopted female
attire and been admitted into the intimacies of female society over a
period of sixteen years, would have been to expose himself—to summary
castigation? That he did not fear; but to what would have been dreaded
infinitely more than famine by one with his antecedents—the ridicule and
scorn of all who knew anything about him; and so he elected to continue
to the end of his days, dressing, writing, and speaking as if he were a
woman, but otherwise conducting himself in all respects with the freedom
belonging to a man.
We adhere to our engagement not to judge the individual who presents
such startling episodes in his life, and contrasts in his character.
It has hitherto been his fate to be classed, it may be said, amongst
the adventurers of which the last century was sufficiently prolific;
these pages will perhaps assist to remove him out of that order and
place him where he should stand—alone, as a physiognomical marvel. We
would in a measure plead for him, in Johnson’s words in behalf of poor
Goldsmith—‘Let not his failings be remembered’—for his faults were but
failings. Of this victim to envy, malice, and all uncharitableness, we
have read clearly enough how sinned against he was, far more than he had
ever himself sinned against others. All he suffered he had to endure
for serving an ungrateful King too faithfully, oblivious that _promesse
des grands n’est pas héritage_, while his attachment to his country
was sublime, entitling him amongst his countrymen at home to Florian’s
epitaph,
Il vécut toujours _en Angleterre_,
Mais son cœur fut toujours ici.
Loyal beyond compare, he ever continued true to one and the other,
frequently under unexceptionably trying circumstances, repeating and
again repeating: ‘Comme Français, je puis regarder le sacrifice de ma
fortune comme la dette de mon amour pour le Roi. Comme militaire et
Chevalier de Saint Louis, je dois même lui sacrifier ma vie; mais pour
celui de mon honneur, il n’est pour personne!’
WORKS AND PUBLICATIONS BY THE CHEVALIER D’EON DE BEAUMONT.
Eloge de Marie d’Est, Duchesse de Penthièvre. In the _Année Littéraire_.
Eloge du Comte d’Ons-en-Bray, Président de l’Académie des Sciences à
Paris. In the _Année Littéraire_.
Situation de la France par rapport aux Finances sous le règne de Louis
XIV. et la Régence du Duc d’Orléans. 1753. 8vo.
Mémoire sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de Lenglet Dufresnoy. In the _Année
Littéraire_, 1755.
Considérations Historiques sur les Impôts des Egyptiens, des Babyloniens,
des Perses, des Grecs, des Romains, et sur les différentes situations de
la France, par rapport aux Finances, depuis l’établissement des Francs
dans la Gaule jusqu’à présent. 2 tomes. 1758. 12mo.
Les Espérances d’un bon Patriote (dans une lettre à M. Fréron, et publiée
dans son _Année Littéraire_, 1759, tom. vi.).
Note remise à son Excellence Monsieur le Comte de Guerchy, par Monsieur
le Chevalier D’Eon. 1763.
Lettres, Mémoires et Négotiations Particulières du Chevalier D’Eon,
Ministre Plénipotentiaire de France auprès du Roi de la Grande Bretagne;
avec Mrs. les Ducs de Praslin, de Nivernois, de Sainte-Foy, et Regnier de
Guerchy, etc. etc. Vita sine litteris mors est. A Londres, M.DCC.LXIV. In
4to and 8vo.
Pièces Relatives aux Lettres, Mémoires et Négotiations Particulières du
Chevalier D’Eon, Ministre Plénipotentiaire de France auprès du Roi de la
Grande Bretagne, contenant La Note, Contre-Note, Lettre à Mr. le Duc de
Nivernois, et Examen des Lettres, Mémoires, etc. A Londres, M.DCC.LXIV.
8vo.
Pièces Autentiques pour servir au Procès Criminel intenté au Tribunal
du Roi d’Angleterre par le Chevalier D’Eon de Beaumont, Ministre
Plénipotentiaire de France, contre Claude Louis François Regnier, Comte
de Guerchy, Ambassadeur Extraordinaire de France auprès de Sa Majesté
Britannique. Le trône a-t-il été pour vous associé à l’iniquité? Vous
qui vous servez de l’autorité qui vous a été conférée pour exercer des
injustices. A Londres, 1765. 12mo.
Dernière Lettre du Chevalier D’Eon à M. le Comte de Guerchy, en date du 5
Août 1767, avec l’extrait de la Procédure en bonne forme. Le sacrifice de
ma vie a été et sera pour mon roi et ma patrie; celui de mon honneur ne
sera pour personne. A Londres, 1767. 4to.
Les Loisirs du Chevalier D’Eon de Beaumont, Ancien Ministre
Plénipotentiaire de France, sur Divers Sujets importans d’Administration
etc., pendant Son Séjour en Angleterre. Eruditio inter prospera
ornamentum, inter adversa refugium.—LAERTIUS. A Amsterdam, M.DCC.LXXIV.
13 tom. 8vo.
Recueil des Pièces relatives aux Démêlés entre Mademoiselle D’Eon et M.
de Beaumarchais, imprimées à Londres, 1778. 12mo.
Epître aux Anglois dans leurs tristes Circonstances présentes. 1788. 8vo.
MSS.
Vade Mecum, ou Dictionnaire Portatif de la Créance des Saints Pères,
puisé dans les livres mêmes des Ministres Protestans. Divisé par
Chapîtres et digéré par ordre alphabétique. Ou, Manuel des Chrétiens
catholiques; ou Nomenclature Théologique. pp. 454, 8vo.
Mémoires, Documens, Remarques, Extraits et Notes Instructives, recueillis
par la Chevalière D’Eon, pour servir à la Vie du Comte de Vauban né le 12
Mai 1633, mort Maréchal de France, à Paris, le 30 Mars 1707, âgé de 74
ans.
La chevalière D’Eon s’est occupée long-tems de ce grand Travail; mais
ses anciennes Occupations militaires, politiques et littéraires, sans
compter les querelles d’Allemans et la guerre civile et incivile qu’elle
a soutenue pendant des longues années en Angleterre, ont consommé et
consumé ses plus belles années. Après 36 ans de Travaux militaires et
politiques, elle ne se trouve pas assez riche, et elle est trop vieille
aujourd’hui, pour entreprendre et finir un Ouvrage aussi savant et aussi
considérable etc. etc. etc.
APPENDIX.
They who have seen the face of the _eiserne jungfrau_ in the dread
dungeon of the Inquisition at Nuremberg, even though by the lurid light
of the keeper’s candle-stuffs, will experience little difficulty in
figuring to themselves the habitual expression of the Chevalier D’Eon’s
features, where every sentiment implanted by nature and conveyed in the
open face, intelligent eyes, and well-shaped nose, was subjugated by the
agitated spirit of sarcasm and disdain that kept rippling, as it were,
out of the spacious brow, and overspreading the otherwise attractive
countenance.
In the various portraits herewith described, the Chevalier or Chevalière
D’Eon is represented in female attire except in those marked *.
1. Angelica Kauffmann after Latour. Francis Haward, R.A., sculpsit
(_mezzo-tinto_) published (by the engraver), January 18, 1788, from the
picture in the collection of George Keate, Esq.
Carola Genovefa Louisa Augusta Andrea Timothea D’Eon de Beaumont, Knight
of the Royal and Military Order of St. Louis, Captain of Dragoons and the
Volunteers of the Army, Aide-de-Camp to the Maréchal Duke and Count de
Broglio, Minister Plenipotentiary from the King of France to the King of
Great Britain in 1763. Born at Tonnerre, October 5, 1728. Painted in her
twenty-fifth year. (See p. 14, from a photograph by C. Prætorius.)
To represent D’Eon de Beaumont as a Chevalière of the Royal and Military
Order of Saint Louis at the age of twenty-five, is an anomaly. The cross
in this picture may have been introduced by Angelica Kauffmann[395] when
she copied La Tour’s portrait, or it may have been added many years after
its execution, by La Tour himself, before Angelica Kauffmann saw it. His
biographer gives authority for such a conjecture where he says: ‘Towards
the close of his life, the mind of this artist began to give way. He
vitiated a large number of his works by retracing them, under the pretext
that in a portrait everything should be sacrificed to the head.’
2. *Mackenzie sc. LE CHEVALIER D’EON (beardless).
3. Printed for S. Hooper, 25 Ludgate Hill, 25 January, 1771
(_mezzo-tinto_, full length). The Discovery or Female Free-mason, Lady
Charles Louis Cezar Augustus Alexander Timotheus D’Eon de Beaumont
(here follow style and titles) and accepted free-mason at the lodge of
Immortality at the ‘Crown and Anchor’ in the Strand.
4. *Huquier, pinxt; Burke, fect. Published as the Act directs, August 7,
1771, by I. Wesson. THE CHEVALIER D’EON. (See p. 208, from a photograph
by C. Prætorius.)
5. Published as the Act directs by S. Hooper, Ludgate Hill, 20 March,
1778 (_mezzo-tinto_). Represented as Minerva, with lance and shield,
upon the latter this legend: At nunc dura dedit vobis discrimina Pallas.
On one side: Impavidam ferient ruinæ. A long inscription in English,
concludes: Læsæ sed invictæ Palladi, per bella, per acta publica
in patriæ suæ honorem et famam inclytæ, cujus virtutes nec inimici
vituperare, pauci homines imitari possunt. Exul mi Deone, ne quidem ossa
patria habeat! In perpetuum amoris monumentum offerebant amici sociales
milites.
6. Dessiné et Gravé par J. B. Bradel d’après nature et les Originaux
communiqués par Mademoiselle D’Eon à ce Seul Artiste. Charlotte Geneviève
Louise Auguste Andrée Timothée D’Eon de Beaumont (here follow style and
titles) Ætatis 35.[396] A la Mémoire des Héroines Françoises, Jeanne
D’Arc, Jeanne Hachette, etc. etc.
7. Frontispiece to ‘La Vie Militaire, Politique et Privée de Mademoiselle
D’Eon de Beaumont, etc.’: by de la Fortelle, 1779. LA CHEVALIÈRE D’EON DE
BEAUMONT, Née en 1728.
8. A. Stöttrup sc. 1779. Same as 7.
9. Painting in oils, life size. CHEVALIER D’EON, 1782. (See Frontispiece,
from a photograph by Arthur King.)
In a short biographical notice of the Chevalier D’Eon, dated 1812 (?),
at the back of this canvas, allusion being made to the trial on sex
policies, it is asserted—‘Sir Joshua Reynolds was in Court during the
trial and requested the Chevalier to pay him a visit, which he did in
female attire on 4 August, 1777, when this Sketch was taken of the
Chevalier by Sir Joshua, and presented by him in 1782 to his friend Sir
Wm. Chambers.’
According to this statement, the signature to which is indistinct,
the sketch of the Chevalier was taken when in his fiftieth year, and
completed in 1782, the date inscribed by the artist to the left of the
figure, whilst the Chevalière, then in her fifty-sixth year, was residing
in France!
This picture is now the property of General Meredith Read, New York,
U.S.A.
10. Dupin (Pierre?) artist and engraver.
Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-César-André-Timothée D’Eon de Beaumont,
née à Tonnerre, en 1728 (here follow style and titles). A Paris chez
Esnauts et Rapilly.
11. Peint par Ducreux, de l’Académie Impériale et Royale de Vienne. Gravé
par Cathelin, de l’Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture à Paris. Læsæ
sed invictæ Palladi. Name, style, and titles close with.... plus célèbre
encore par sa Vertu que par son nom. Pensionnaire de Louis XV. et de
Louis XVI. Née à Tonnerre, le 5 8ᵇʳᵉ, 1728, Ætatis 58.
12. Cosway, R.A., 1787. Thos. Chambers sculpsit. Published July 12, 1787.
LA CHEVALIÈRE D’EON.
13. Painted by Robineau. Engraved by V. M. Picot. From a picture of
Robineau’s in the possession of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
Published June 20, 1789, by V. M. Picot. Dedicated by Permission to His
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. The assault or Fencing-Match which
took place between Mademoiselle La Chevalière D’Eon de Beaumont and
Monsieur de Saint-George, on the 9th of April, 1787, at Carlton House,
in the presence of His Royal Highness, several of the Nobility, and many
eminent Fencing Masters of London.
14. J. Condé delin. et sculp. LA CHEVALIÈRE D’EON, née à Tonnerre, le 5
8ᵇʳᵉ, 1728.
15. Published by I. Sewell, March 1, 1791 (for the ‘European Magazine’).
Same as 14.
16. Medallion portrait. Vigil audax—by J. Condé, published June 24, 1791,
upon the occasion of the entertainment given by the Managers of Ranelagh
for the benefit of the Chevalière D’Eon ... deprived of a considerable
part of her fortune by the odious detention of a deposit. Minerve
Gauloise, née a Tonnerre, le 5 8ᵇʳᵉ, 1728. Proprio Marte Tuta. The French
artist who engraved this plate designed it for a monument of English
generosity and French gratitude.
Dic mihi, Virgo ferox, cum sit tibi cassis et hasta,
Quare non habeas Ægida? Cæsar habet.
Pax est fœminei generis, dat fœmina pacem;
Quæ Bellona fuit nunc Dea pacis erit.
17. Dance, R.A., 26 May, 1793. Engraved by William Daniell, August 15,
1810. THE CHEVALIÈRE D’EON. This profile, to the left, was drawn at the
request of Mr. W. Seward, F.R.S.
18. Robert Cooper sculp. Published July 2, 1810, by J. Bell, Southampton
Street, Strand. Engraved for La Belle Assemblée. Same as 14.
19. From a Cast taken after death. Engraved by C. Turner from the Cast
taken May 24, 1810, in the presence of J. C. Carpuc, Esq. and Dr.
Pearson. Published June 29, 1810, by C. Turner. THE CHEVALIER D’EON.
A tinted engraving of the _torso_, from a drawing by C. Turner, was
published with the surgical attestation (see p. 331) by C. Turner, June
14, 1810. This print was never sold publicly, and was not to be obtained
without an order from a magistrate.
CARICATURES.
In September 1777 was executed for the ‘London Magazine’—Mademoiselle
de Beaumont, or the Chevalier D’Eon. Female Minister Plenipo., Capt. of
Dragoons, etc. etc.—a full-length figure, the right half being a lady
holding a fan, and the left half a man in uniform, with hat under the arm.
In Paris was published a print similar to the above, illustrating both
sexes, inscribed—Dédié aux dragons de l’armée.
Another sketch that appeared in London, in 1778, represented the right
half of a dragoon, with drawn sword in hand, back to back with the right
half of a lady.
Hail! Thou production most uncommon,
Woman half-man and man half-Woman!
In a caricature, by Gillray, of the Assaut d’armes at Carlton House in
April 1787 (see pp. 308, 367), we see ‘the Chevalière D’Eon making a
successful thrust and hitting Saint George in his right arm. A railing
divides the combatants from a highly select audience, in which the Prince
of Wales occupies the post of honour, while Mrs. Fitzherbert sits on his
right hand, and a crowd of political and fashionable worthies exhibit the
greatest interest in the contest.’
Other ludicrous drawings of this fencing-match made their appearance at
about the same time.
Needless to observe that the Chevalière D’Eon did not escape being made
the subject of foul and obscene illustrations, in the same way in which
it had become the fashion to treat the most distinguished and highest in
the land!
FOOTNOTES
[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.
[2] Ch. MSS. 161.
[3] Ch. MSS.
[4] De la Fortelle, 126.
[5] Ch. MSS.
[6] Rede’s _Anecdotes and Biography_. London, 1779.
[7] Valcroissant obtained his liberty after a twelvemonth’s confinement,
through the instrumentality of D’Eon. _Lett. Mém._ &c. 1, 5.
[8] _Russia Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[9] Gaill. 373-377.
[10] This correspondence, arranged by Woronzoff and D’Eon, was not fully
commenced until 1757. See _Mémoire_ on the Secret Correspondence in
Russia, 1757-1774, by the Count de Broglio. Boutaric, ii. 465.
[11] D’Eon to the Count de Vergennes, May 28, 1776: _Archives des
affaires étrangères_. Gaill. 23. D’Eon to Louis XVI.: Ch. MSS. 861.
[12] _Russia Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[13] See Argument.
[14] _Russia Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[15] Campan, i. 190
[16] Note Book, dated 1754: Ch. MSS.
[17] Elizabeth was much prepossessed in favour of the English. Being a
great admirer of their fashions, and wishing to introduce them at her
Court, she had dolls sent to her in the various dresses worn, and which
were fitted by Miss Church of St. James’s Street.
[18] _Russia Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[19] A tradition exists to the effect that Count Woronzoff’s palace in
the Sadovaya Oulitza, St. Petersburg, now occupied by the Corps des
Pages, was constructed with English guineas. Later, in 1758, the count
received a gratuity of fifty thousand roubles from Louis XV.
[20] In acknowledging the receipt of despatches of May 12 and 18, brought
to Paris by Michel the merchant, M. Rouillé warmly congratulates Douglas,
in the name of the King, by letter dated June 18, on the distinction
with which he had been received by the Ministers of Russia and even the
Empress herself.—Copies of _French Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[21] _Russia Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[22] _Lett. Mém._ &c., iii. 6.
[23] Copies of _French Correspondence_ in _Russia Correspondence_, Public
Record Office.
[24] Prince Tcheckbatoff says of Apraxin: The field-marshal was entirely
devoid of military talents. Whilst awaiting orders at Riga he astonished
the people by his display of wealth, and when moving with the army
indulged in all the comforts and luxuries to be found only in a large
city, and this in the midst of the sound of arms or in fatiguing marches.
His tents extended over the space of a small town, five hundred horses
being required to transport his baggage. Apraxin was a heavy, unwieldy
man, fond of ladies’ society. Apraxin is described by Sir Hanbury
Williams as very corpulent, lazy, luxurious, and certainly not brave.
[25] M. Wolkhoff to D’Eon, April 15/27, 1757. _Lett. Mém._ &c. iii. 6.
_Gazette d’Utrecht_, xiii. 1757.
[26] D’Eon to the Count de Broglio, June 12, 1775: _Archives des affaires
étrangères_. Gaill. 71.
[27] _Lett. Mém._ &c. i. 48.
[28] Boutaric, i. 222, 223.
[29] Poutaric, i. 86, 224. Vandal, 307.
[30] _Napoléon I. auteur du testament de Pierre le Grand_: par G.
Berkholz. (Bruxelles, à l’Office de Publicité, 1863.)
[31] Terms not understood.
[32] _Lett. Mém._ &c. iii. 9.
[33] Vandal, 327.
[34] _Russia Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[35] This is the fifth or sixth minister who is anxious to make my
fortune. Fortune, however, unhappily wears a wig, and is continually
slipping away from my grasp. The next time we meet I shall seize her by
the hair.—Note by D’Eon.
[36] _Lett. Mém._ &c. iii. 11.
[37] De la Fortelle, 33.
[38] Note-book, dated 1754: Ch. MSS.
[39] Loménie, i. 414.
[40] Ch. MSS. In his _Mémoires Secrets_, &c. (London, 1781), Petit de
Bachaumont states that D’Eon was sent as fencing-master to the Grand-Duke
Peter, who had wished for one; a piece of information he obtained in all
probability from the Count de Guerchy, who told George III. a similar
story. He adds that D’Eon was at the same time entrusted to arrange
with the grand-duke for the reception of a French ambassador at St.
Petersburg; as manifest an absurdity, there being at the Russian Court no
person more hostile to French interests than Peter.
[41] La Messalière, 77.
[42] _Lett. Mém._ &c. iii. 14.
[43] Gaill. 74.
[44] _Lett. Mém._ &c. iii. 15.
[45] An English version of portions of this work appeared in the
_Political Register_ for 1766, &c.
[46] Vandal, 348 _et seq._
[47] Duke de Choiseul to Count Bernstorff, July 29, 1759. ‘Si j’étais
maître,’ de Choiseul used to say, ‘nous serions vis-à-vis de l’Angleterre
comme l’Espagne vis-à-vis des Maures; si l’on prenait ce parti,
l’Angleterre serait détruite d’ici à trente ans.’ Louis XV. thought
differently.
[48] Private, from the Duke de Choiseul to the Marquis de l’Hôpital,
October 2, 1759. Vandal, 360.
[49] D’Eon to Louis XVI.: Ch. MSS. 861.
[50] D’Eon to Beaumarchais, January 7, 1776. Gaill. 406.
[51] Secret instructions to the Baron de Breteuil, April 1, 1760.
_Affaires étrangères_, Vandal, 373.
[52] Ch. MSS.
[53] Vandal, 265 _et seq._
[54] Flassan, vi. 289.
[55] Flassan, vi. 190.
[56] A distinguished physician at the French Court, sent by Louis XV. to
attend upon the Empress, who had complained to the King of her physical
sufferings.
[57] _Lett. Mém._ &c. iii. 17.
[58] _Lett. Mém._ &c. iii. 19-20.
[59] De la Fortelle, 40. Writing under the persuasion that D’Eon was of
the female sex, Flassan, vi. 110, says:—‘Woronzoff and D’Eon were the
intermediaries in the correspondence between Louis XV. and Elizabeth.’
Capefigue, _Louis XV. et la Société du XVIIIᵐᵉ Siècle_, Paris, 1842,
says, iv. 32: ‘By means of his renown, D’Eon was enabled to accomplish
the most delicate and most difficult missions ... his correspondence with
Louis XV. is eminently remarkable ... he was chiefly instrumental in
arranging the treaty of alliance between France and Russia.’
[60] French ambassador at Vienna, afterwards created Duke de Praslin.
[61] _Lett. Mém._ &c. iii. 24.
[62] Louis XV. to the Count de Broglio, May 31, 1761. Boutaric, i. 265.
[63] De Broglie, i. 384.
[64] See _Scots Mag._ vol. xxiii. for Marshal de Broglio’s account of
this action.
[65] _Lett. Mém._ &c. i. 145.
[66] D’Eon to the Duke de Choiseul, January 12, 1764, and MS. notes.
_Lett. Mém._ &c. i. 145.
[67] Louis XV. to Marshal de Broglio. De Broglie, i. 438.
[68] I would here say what I have said to my generals, that the
success of this little enterprise is due chiefly to the Chev. de la
Tulley, Captain of the de la Ferronaye dragoons, and to M. Casette,
formerly Lieutenant of the d’Autichamp dragoons. Note by D’Eon, _Pièces
Relatives_, &c. 31.
[69] The Count de Broglio to Louis XV., February 19, 1762, and March 24,
1758. De Broglie, ii. 5; i. 300.
[70] The Marquis de l’Hôpital had retired the preceding autumn.
[71] 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.
[72] D’Eon to the Count de Broglio, July 1, 1762. De Broglie, ii. 105.
Peter III. was assassinated July 14, 1762.
[73] 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_.
[74] De Broglie, ii. 607. I have not been able to consult the original
work.
[75] Peter III.
[76] _Lett. Mém._ &c. i. 382.
[77] Countess Catherine Woronzoff was the maiden name of this lady.
[78] _Lett. Mém._ &c. i. 104.
[79] _Lett. Mém._ &c. MS. notes, 99, 101.
[80] The Duke de Choiseul, during whose ministry (1764) the Jesuits were
expelled from France, the Order being wisely suppressed by Clement XIV.
in 1773.
[81] _Lett. Mém._ &c. MS. note, i. v. Junius taunts the Duke of Grafton
on his wife’s infidelity. This lady, a daughter of Lord Ravensworth,
obtained a divorce from the duke in 1769, and was afterwards married to
the Earl of Ossory.
[82] The Duke de Nivernois to the Duke de Praslin, January 12, 1763. De
Broglie, ii. 107. Gaill. 92.
[83] _European Mag._ vol. xiv.
[84] The Duke de Nivernois to the Duke de Praslin, October 2, November
14, 1762. _Lett. Mém._ &c. i. 246.
[85] The signatories were—the Duke of Bedford, the Duke de Praslin, and
the Marquis Grimaldi.
[86] D’Eon left London with the ratifications of the definite treaty on
February 23rd, and delivered them to the Duke of Bedford on the 26th.
_France Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[87] The Duke de Nivernois was little aware that he was saying a great
truth. Note by D’Eon.
[88] The Duke de Nivernois Correspondence. _Lett. Mém._ &c.
[89] The Duke de Nivernois Correspondence. _Lett. Mém._ &c.
[90] _France Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[91] January 8, 1763. _Lett. Mém._ &c. iii. 74.
[92] The Duke de Nivernois Correspondence. _Lett. Mém._ &c.
[93] _Mém. de la Chevalière D’Eon._ Gaill. 115.
[94] De Pompadour.
[95] Ch. MSS. 951.
[96] De Broglie, ii. 105.
[97] Written _circa_ 1806. The Count de Broglio died in 1781.
[98] Ch. MSS. 814, 767. ‘Preamble to Will.’
[99] This highly esteemed order, instituted in 1693 by Louis XIV., fell
in abeyance in 1830.
[100] The presents, valued at fifty thousand crowns, consisted of his
Majesty’s portrait set in diamonds, a costly Savonnerie carpet, and
superb Gobelin tapestry. They were shown by Lord Bute to the King, who
considered they were magnificent, and the letter charming.
[101] De Broglie, ii. 97.
[102] Boutaric, i. 295.
[103] July 27, 1763; _ibid._ i. 297.
[104] ‘His brain of whipped cream enclosed within a head of Rouen
porcelain, relates pleasantly a quantity of tittle-tattle, accompanied
by little nothings.’—D’Eon on the Duke de Choiseul. Ch. MSS.: ‘Comparing
what has passed between the Duke de Choiseul and us at different times,
there does not appear to have been the same frankness and veracity in the
latter part of this negotiation as we had hitherto experienced in that
minister.’—Duke of Bedford to the Karl of Egremont, Paris, February 16,
1763. _France Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[105] _Tête de dragon._
[106] May 17, 1763. De Broglie, ii. 119.
[107] Boutaric, i. 293.
[108] Regnier, Count de Guerchy, was frequently admitted into the
private apartments of the Pompadour. He never missed the opportunity for
replacing on her foot her fallen slipper, or carrying her candlestick to
her small boudoir or private closet. Such little services were of great
weight in the mind of de Pompadour and of every Messaline at Court. Ch.
MSS. ‘Preamble to Will.’
[109] Gaill. 117. The Duke de Broglie maintains (_Le Secret du Roi_, ii.
138) that not a word of this pretty tale can be accepted as true—in the
first place, because in the year 1763, de Pompadour, already in failing
health, enjoyed in appearance only the honours to which she had been
accustomed; and because the discovery of the secret by de Pompadour, on
becoming known to Tercier, would have been immediately communicated by
that gentleman to the Count de Broglio, amongst whose papers is not to
be found the least trace of any reference to so important an incident.
The duke’s assumptions, unsupported by counter-evidence, do not appear to
justify his unqualified rejection of the story. His Grace deplores more
than once the want of other papers, for the absence of which he is unable
to account.
[110] Later, in the Musée des Souverains.
[111] _Mém. de la Chevalière D’Eon._ Gaill. 117.
[112] _France Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[113] D’Eon to the Count de Broglio, July 21, 1763. De Broglie, ii. 125.
[114] Treyssac de Vergy to the Duke de Choiseul, p. 25. _Pièces
Relatives_, &c.
[115] De Praslin, who was exceedingly lean, took a great dislike to fat
people. The first time he saw Favier, secretary to the Count de Broglio,
a man of stout proportions, he said, ‘You appear to me to be a worthless
fellow, for you are very fat.’ This fat and a good appetite was the cause
of all that worthy man’s misfortunes at the hands of Praslin.... The
best thing he can do to recover the good graces of the duke is to die of
consumption. Note by D’Eon. See Boutaric, for de Praslin’s persecutions
of this man.
[116] The Duke de Nivernois Correspondence. _Lett. Mém._ &c.
[117] A Testament _ab irato_ is one drawn up under the influence of
choler; it is not only null and void according to custom and written law,
but it is rescinded and destroyed in the Parliament of Paris. Note by
D’Eon.
[118] ‘Eight’ in 4to. and 8vo. editions of _Lett. Mém._ &c.; altered by
D’Eon to ‘nine.’ Ch. MSS.
[119] De Broglie, ii. 122.
[120] The mistress of the Prince de Conti, and aspiring to be his wife.
Walpole describes her as being an Anglomane.
[121] Ch. MSS. 977.
[122] _Lett. Mém._ &c. i.
[123] _France Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[124] Autograph letter. Boutaric, i. 298.
[125] Campan, i. 190.
[126] De Broglie, ii. 139.
[127] D’Eon MSS. Gaill. 128.
[128] _France Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[129] Ch. MSS. 782.
[130] ‘You will see by my letter of yesterday that I was aware of the
Sieur D’Eon’s recall....’—Louis XV. to Tercier, October 12, 1763.
Boutaric, i. 299. It seems clear enough that the order of recall did not
originate with the King. How just were the Chevalier’s conclusions!
[131] Ch. MSS. 789, 769, 946.
[132] Ch. MSS.
[133] _Lett. Mém._, &c. xxxiii. MS. notes.
[134] No authorised duel had taken place in France since the reign of
Henri II., when La Châteigneraie was killed in single combat with Jarnac.
A decree of the Legislative Assembly, dated September 17, 1792, abolished
prosecution for duelling, and rescinded all punishments for duels fought
after July 14, 1789. Since 1832-33, the Court of Cassation has decreed
death at a duel to be murder anticipated by the law.
[135] ‘High words arose at a nobleman’s house in Great George Street
between two foreign gentlemen, and some hard expressions dropping, a
challenge ensued; but the company present interposing, and a party of the
Guards being sent for, further mischief was prevented.’ _Scots Magazine_,
vol. xxv.; _Daily Advertiser_, October 28, 1763, and other newspapers.
[136] _Note_, &c. 16.
[137] _Lettre d’un Français à M. le Duc de Nivernois à Paris_ (October
1763, by M. Goudard.) 2. _Lettre à M. de la M——, Ecuyer_, &c. (by M.
Treyssac de Vergy, November 19, 1763) D’Eon sent copies to the Duke de
Choiseul, ‘that he might have an idea of the real liberty enjoyed in
England.’
[138] The Count de Guerchy to the Duke de Choiseul, November 12, 1763.—De
Broglie, ii. 151.
[139] See p. 76 for these terms.
[140] D’Eon acquits the Countess of having had any part in the plot
against his life. Of a house rendered illustrious by its virtues and
courage, she would never have consented to such an act. Was she to be
reproached for having married an unknown poisoner? She was, perhaps,
to be reproached for avarice and ugliness, but for this, nature was to
blame. As for her soul it was pure and Christian.—‘Preamble to Will.’ Ch.
MSS.
[141] Ch. MSS. 737.
[142] Boutaric, i. 299-310.
[143] Boutaric, i. 302, 303.
[144] Boutaric, i. 302-304.
[145] De Broglio, ii. 148.
[146] Ch. MSS. 786.
[147] _France Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[148] Ch. MSS. 669. So late as September 1764, the Chevalier made a
declaration before his friend Sir John Fielding, and other magistrates,
to the effect that with the support of a band of men he was retaining for
the purpose, he should resist by force any attempt on the part of the
French constables to kidnap him. The house, 32 Brewer Street, remains
unchanged.
[149] _Lett. Mém._ &c. i. 109.
[150] ‘D’Eon has replied by putting it (the order) into his
pocket.’—Louis XV. to Tercier, December 30, 1763. Boutaric, i. 310.
[151] Boutaric, i. 307.
[152] Boutaric, i. 309.
[153] _France Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[154] Old newspapers.
[155] See p. 53.
[156] The Count de Broglio to Louis XV., December 6, 1763. De Broglie,
ii. 155.
[157] Chevalier, or as he was sometimes called Doctor, O’Gorman, related
to the Thomond family, was married in 1757 to D’Eon’s sister, whose dowry
was a valuable property in Burgundy. O’Connell maintained he had thereby
spoiled his pedigree. Roche, who was well acquainted with him, describes
his stature as exceeding six feet five inches. O’Gorman spent his time
in genealogical studies, when not more profitably employed in Ireland,
selling the produce of his wife’s vineyards.
[158] _Lett. Mém._ &c. i. 124.
[159] De Broglie, ii. 153.
[160] See p. 119.
[161] _Note remise à Son Excellence Monsieur le Comte de Guerchy, par
Monsieur le Chevalier D’Eon_ (November 30, 1763).
[162] Lines on the Duke de Choiseul, to whom D’Eon was much attached,
written after his exile:—
‘Dans ses traités et dans sa vie
Régnent la droiture et l’honneur;
L’Europe connaît son génie,
Et les infortunés son cœur.
Comme tout autre dans sa place,
Il dut avoir des ennemis;
Comme nul autre, en sa disgrâce
Il acquit de nouveaux amis.’—(Ch. MSS.)
[163] _Contre-Note ou Lettre à Monsieur le Marquis L——, à Paris_ (by M.
Goudard, December 1763).
[164] Ch. MSS.
[165] Ch. MSS. 667.
[166] Walpole to the Earl of Hertford, March 27, 1764, and more besides
in a letter to Charles Churchill, Esq., March 27, 1764.
[167] D’Eon to the Duke de Nivernois, February 15, 1764, and to the Duke
de Choiseul, same date. Gaill. 163.
[168] See p. 76.
[169] Colonel Nardin had been employed by Louis XV. to watch over the
security of D’Eon and his papers.
[170] According to the terms of the late treaty, the town and port
of Dunkirk were to be restored to the state fixed by the treaty of
Aix-la-Chapelle and other treaties, and particularly the lunette should
be destroyed immediately after the exchange of ratifications, as well as
the forts and batteries which defended the entrance from the sea. The
work proceeded so slowly, that it was considered it would take seven
years to complete; eventually all the fortifications were demolished by
September 1764.
[171] This offer amounted to 20,000_l._
[172] Boutaric, i. 313.
[173] Louis XV. to Tercier, December 30, 1763; March 25, 1764. Boutaric,
i. 311, 316.
[174] Louis XV. to Tercier, December 30, 1763. _Ibid._ 311.
[175] ‘This letter was addressed to the Rev. Father Loris, Rue du Regard,
and was sent to me by his Majesty on April 5, 1764.’ Endorsement in the
hand of Tercier. Loris was probably a fictitious name. _Ibid._ 317.
[176] ‘The Sieur de Nort will leave for England as soon as he receives
my orders to that effect through the Count de Broglio, and he will
strictly comply with the instructions he will receive from him in my
name, and in behalf of my service, so that he may be guided in his
proceedings, whether as regards the Sieur D’Eon, or the Count de Guerchy,
my ambassador. He will also execute whatever he may receive by word of
mouth, or in writing, from the Sieur Tercier on this subject, and will
preserve the most profound silence on this mission towards everybody,
without any exception, but the persons above named.’—Louis XV. to M. de
Nort, Versailles, April 9, 1764. Boutaric, i. 319.
[177] In 1769, after the destruction of the Bastille, D’Eon wrote a
letter to Lord Stanhope, as President of the Revolution Society, and
presented him with a stone from its ruins.
[178] Plans for the invasion of England.
[179] The Marquise de Pompadour died April 15, 1764, ‘d’une maladie de
cœur,’ says Guizot.
[180] _Mém. de la Chevalière D’Eon_, Ministère des affaires
étrangères.—De Broglie, ii. 173.
[181] ‘The foreign ministers agreed, as to be sure you have been told,
to make Monsieur de Guerchy’s _cause commune_.’—Walpole to the Earl of
Hertford, April 20, 1764. See _Pièces Relatives_, &c. p. 218.
[182] ‘I do not wish that any steps should be taken to arrest the
judicial proceedings commenced.’—Louis XV. to Tercier, May 1, 1764.
Boutaric, i. 322.
[183] May 15, 1764. _Mém. de la Chevalière D’Eon._—De Broglie, ii. 174.
[184] _Examen des Lettres, Mémoires, et Négotiations Particulières
du Chevalier D’Eon, Ministre Plénipotentiaire de France auprès du
Roi de la Grande Bretagne, dans une Lettre à M. N——_, 1764, pp. 52.
Goudard received twenty guineas from the ambassador for his work, and
was arrested at the instance of Becket, printer, in the Strand, for
non-payment of expenses!
[185] Ch. MSS.
[186] Ch. MSS.
[187] De Guerchy’s treatment of D’Eon de Mouloise, lieutenant of cavalry,
a cousin of D’Eon, one of the secret agents sent by Louis XV. to watch
over the safety of the Chevalier and his papers, was scandalous and cruel.
[188] Lords of the Treasury to Lord Halifax, May, 1, 1764.—_France
Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[189] Lord Halifax to Lord Hertford, July 5, 1764.—_France
Correspondence_, Public Record Office.
[190] D’Eon to the Count de Broglio, June 8, 1764.—Ministère des affaires
étrangères. De Broglie, ii. 175.
[191] When in Paris Walpole saw this beast, which he declared to be a
wolf of enormous proportions.
[192] Ch. MSS. 480.