, his
minister, and Madame de Pompadour, a result which frightened Louis XV.
more than any other disaster.
The importance of his position now turned d'Eon's head, in the
opinion of Horace Walpole, who, of course, had not a guess at the true
nature of the situation. D'Eon, in London, entertained French visitors
of eminence, and the best English society, it appears, with the
splendour of a full-blown ambassador, and at whose expense? Certainly
not at his own, and neither the late ambassador, de Nivernais, nor the
coming ambassador, de Guerchy, a man far from wealthy, had the
faintest desire to pay the bills. Angry and tactless letters,
therefore, passed between d'Eon in London and de Guerchy, de
Nivernais, and de Praslin in Paris. De Guerchy was dull and clumsy;
d'Eon used him as the whetstone of his wit, with a reckless
abandonment which proves that he was, as they say, 'rather above
himself,' like Napoleon before the march to Moscow. London, in short,
was the Moscow of little d'Eon. When de Guerchy arrived, and d'Eon was
reduced to _secretariser_, and, indeed, was ordered to return to
France, and not to show himself at Court, he lost all self-control.
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