So flattering a testimonial, which showed that his many scandalous
intrigues were forgiven, if not forgotten, would have pacified a man less
incensed. Sheltered by a minister plenipotentiary’s pension from the
complete destitution in the midst of which he had been struggling for
three years, anybody else but d’Eon would have gladly availed himself
of this second opportunity for wiping out the past, in order to resume
later a career greatly compromised, indeed, but in which his acknowledged
talents still afforded him some prospects of advancement. Such was far
from being the case, however; his destiny had driven him into adventures,
and from this time adventures attracted him.
De Guerchy had died on his return to France. His health, undermined,
it was said, by the anxieties of his embassy, never recovered from
the final blow—the ridicule, if not disgrace, of his condemnation, to
which he speedily succumbed. D’Eon’s hatred of this name which had
proved so fatal to him was not disarmed by the death of his enemy,
whom he continued to pursue with his pen. He was quite prepared for a
fresh outburst of indignation against himself, in consequence of de
Guerchy’s death, for which he felt sure he would be held responsible, and
conjectured that he would meet with a hostile reception at court, should
he venture to return to France.
The ministers’ resentment, which he had so freely mocked and scoffed
at, and the anger of the house of de Guerchy, then all powerful, were
sufficiently cogent reasons for his abandoning any idea of return. In
England, where the judgment by which he was declared to be outlawed had
just been annulled by the suit he had won against the ambassador, he
was assured of a safe asylum and a degree of liberty that he could not
hope to find elsewhere. Accordingly, he resigned himself to remaining
there, fully determined to improve, by every possible means, a position
he regarded as quite unjustly lowered, and to sustain that notoriety to
which he had grown accustomed, and which had become indispensable to him.