Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence Volume II Part 1

Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence.

Vol. 2.

by Elizabeth S. Kite.

CHAPTER XV

_Figaro-"Feindre d'ignorer ce qu'on sait, de savoir tout ce qu'on ignore; d'entendre ce qu'on ne comprend pas, de ne point our ce qu'on entend; surtout de pouvoir au dela de ses forces; avoir souvent pour grand secret de cacher qu'il n'y en a point; s'enfermer pour tailler des plumes, et paraitre profond, quand on n'est, comme on dit, que vide et creux; jouer bien ou mal un personage; repandre des espions et pensionner des traitres; amollir des cachets, intercepter des lettres, et tacher d'enn.o.blir la pauvrete des moyens par l'importance des objets; voila toute la politique ou je meure."_

_Le Comte-"Eh! c'est l'intrigue que tu definis!"_

_Figaro-"La politique, l'intrigue, volontiers; mais, comme je les crois un peu germaines, en fa.s.se qui voudra!"_

_Le Mariage de Figaro, Act III, Scene V._

Curious History of the Chevalier d'Eon-Secret Agent of Louis XV-The Chevalier Feigns to Be a Woman-Curiosity of London Aroused-Necessity for the French Government to Obtain Possession of State Papers in d'Eon's Hands-Beaumarchais Accepts Mission-Obtains Possession of the Famous Chest.

It was the summer of 1775. The moment was approaching when the attention of Europe would be directed towards the events transpiring on the other side of the Atlantic, in that New World, of which the old was as yet scarcely conscious. The stand for freedom, for individual rights, for the liberty of expansion which was there made, was destined to rouse the warmest sympathies amongst all cla.s.ses, especially in France. The enthusiasm which greeted the resistance of the colonies rapidly became a national sentiment which the French government was unable to suppress or even to keep within bounds. To direct this enthusiasm into a practical channel that should lead to immediate and efficient support of the insurged colonies whilst awaiting the active intervention of the government, was to be primarily the work of one man, and that man was Beaumarchais.

But in starting for London on the present occasion, he was unconscious of the historic importance which this journey was destined to a.s.sume.

The mission with which he was charged was one of the most singular with which any government ever seriously commissioned one of its agents.

There was living at this time in London the Chevalier d'Eon de Beaumont, who was a former agent of the occult diplomacy of Louis XV, and who at this time was an exile from his country, to which he had been forbidden to return in consequence of the scandalous and disgraceful quarrel that had occurred between him and the French Amba.s.sador, the Comte de Guerchy, years before. Although publicly disgraced, he retained the secret confidence of the old King, who allowed him an annual income of 12,000 francs. The present government was willing to continue this pension, but on condition that the chevalier give up the secret correspondence of the late King, which remained in his possession, and of which it was very important that the French government should obtain control. It was to negotiate the remittance of this correspondence that Beaumarchais was commissioned the summer of 1775. The oddity of the character with which he had to deal, rather than the actual nature of the mission, was what made the negotiation so difficult and the proceedings so unusual.

Several years previous, about 1771, a rumor began to circulate in England that the Chevalier in question was really a woman disguised.

Although one of the most belligerent of characters, who "smoked, drank and swore like a German trooper," it appears that "the rarity of his blond beard and the smallness of his form (Gaillardet)," "a certain feminine roundness of the face, joined to a voice equally feminine, contributed to give credit to the fable (note of M. de Lomenie, _sur le_ Chevalier d'Eon)." There were also certain facts in the life of the chevalier which supported this theory; among others it was known that as a very young man he had been sent by Louis XV in the guise of a woman to the court of St. Petersburg, where he had succeeded in being admitted as reader to the Empress Elizabeth.

As the Chevalier d'Eon was a widely known personage in English society, the matter took on great proportions and became a subject of betting according to the _maniere anglaise_. D'Eon, who seems to have cared primarily for one thing, namely, notoriety of whatever sort, secretly encouraged the dispute, although he wrote at the same time to the Comte de Broglie: "It is not my fault if the court of Russia during my sojourn here, has a.s.sured the court of England that I am a woman.... It is not my fault if the fury of betting upon all sorts of things is such a national malady among the English that they often risk more than their fortunes upon a single horse.... I have proved to them, and I will prove it as often as they wish, that I am not only a man, but a captain of dragoons, with his arms in his hands." And yet he was able to keep the world in a state of complete mystification as to his true s.e.x, up to the time of his death in 1810.

Voltaire says of him: "The whole adventure confounds me. I cannot understand either d'Eon, or the ministers of his time, or the measures of Louis XV, or those being made at present. I understand nothing of the whole affair." In his _Memoires sur le Chevalier d'Eon de Beaumont_, M.

Gaillardet says: "The history of the Chevalier d'Eon was one of the most singular and most controverted enigmas of the 18th century. That century finished without its being known what was the veritable s.e.x of that mysterious being, who after being successively doctor of law, advocate in the Parliament of Paris, censor of belles-lettres, secretary of emba.s.sy at St. Petersburg, captain of dragoons, Chevalier de Saint Louis, minister plenipotentiary to London, suddenly, at the age of 46 years announced himself to be a woman, a.s.sumed the costume of his new role, and conserved it until the time of his death in 1810."

As we shall presently see, and for reasons wholly justifiable, it is Beaumarchais who works this transformation in the life of d'Eon. Nothing in relation to his strange character is so pa.s.sing strange as the fact that the King and his minister, and above all that Beaumarchais himself, the cleverest of men-should have been completely duped by the Chevalier as to the matter of his s.e.x. It even went so far as to be generally believed that the _demoiselle_ d'Eon was seriously in love with Beaumarchais, and the latter himself believed it. In the most skillful way the chevalier endeavored to make use of this deceit to further his own ends. Failing in this, and having made the fatal avowal and received the King's orders to a.s.sume the garb of a woman, the fury of d'Eon knew no bounds. Powerless to wreak his vengeance in any other way, he endeavored by calumny and abuse to thwart the career of the man upon whom he had been able to impose only in the matter of his s.e.x.

Beaumarchais readily excused all the insults cast at him, believing as he did, that this is the manner of revenge of the strange creature, "his amazon"-(as d'Eon is familiarly called in the correspondence between himself and the minister Vergennes)-for finding that her love is not requited.

But to return to the facts of the case: D'Eon, at the time of the death of Louis XV was living in constant hope of being restored to favor and allowed to return to France. His pension of 12,000 francs had proved all too small for his support and he was heavily in debt. No sooner had the young king, Louis XVI, mounted the throne than the Chevalier sent word to Vergennes, minister of foreign affairs, announcing that he had in his possession important letters which were of such a nature that should they fall into the hands of the English, it might precipitate a war between the two nations. An agent was therefore dispatched to enter into negotiations. "Understanding," says Gaillardet, "that if he did not profit by this occasion, he would have little to expect from the new reign, d'Eon resolved to put a high price on the papers in his possession. He demanded: first, that he be solemnly justified of the imputations directed against him by his enemies-especially the family of the Comte de Guerchy; second, that all the sums, indemnities, advances, etc., due him for the past 26 years, be paid, amounting in all to 318,477 livres, 16 sous."

Unable to come to any reasonable terms, the negotiations were broken off and the agent returned to France. He was replaced by another who was equally unsuccessful, and for a time the matter was dropped.

In the meantime noise of the affair reached the English government, and d'Eon soon had the satisfaction of receiving large offers from that quarter if he would consent to give up the papers. The Chevalier, whatever his faults, or the violence of his character, was not a traitor; he had no intention of giving the papers in his possession to the English at any price, but he was well satisfied that their value should be thus enhanced.

In the meantime, his pension was suspended and finding himself without funds, "he borrowed 5,000 pounds from his devoted friend and protector, the Lord Ferrers, giving him as security a sealed chest, which, Ferrers supposed, contained the famous correspondence. He took care, however,"

says Gaillardet, "to withdraw from that deposit precisely the personal doc.u.ments of the late King, which were the most important for the court of France and for himself. These papers contained a plan for the rest.i.tution of the Stuarts, a descent upon England, and other dreams, const.i.tuting what d'Eon called _le grand projet_ of Louis XV."

At this juncture Beaumarchais appeared on the scene. "To interest the latter in his cause, and give him a mark of confidence (Gaillardet) d'Eon avows with tears that he is a woman, and this avowal was made with so much art that Beaumarchais did not conceive the least doubt."

D'Eon recounted the history of the papers in his possession, and the offers which he had resisted. Charmed to oblige a woman so interesting by her sorrows, her courage, her _esprit_, Beaumarchais addressed at once touching letters to the King in favor of his new friend. "When one thinks," he writes, "that this creature, so much persecuted, belongs to a s.e.x to which one forgives everything, the heart is touched with a sweet compa.s.sion." "I do a.s.sure you, Sire," he writes elsewhere, "that in taking this astonishing creature with dexterity and gentleness, although she is embittered by twelve years of misfortune, she can yet be brought to enter under the yoke, and to give up all the papers of the late King on reasonable conditions."

As to the motives which could have induced le chevalier d'Eon to avow himself a woman, his biographer, already quoted, gives the following explanation:

"His military and diplomatic career was about finished; disgraced, he would disappear from the scene of the world and fall into obscurity. But precisely shadow and silence were a horror to him. If there was a mystery in his existence, if they learned that he was a woman, he would become the hero of the day and of the century; his services would then appear extraordinary. This metamorphosis would attract to him the attention of Europe, and enable him more easily to obtain satisfaction from the French government, who would no longer refuse a woman the price of blood shed and services rendered."

Both Gaillardet and Lomenie, after a careful examination of all the correspondence in relation to the affair between the Chevalier d'Eon and Beaumarchais, a.s.sure us that not a line exists which does not prove that the latter was completely deceived as to the matter of the s.e.x of the Chevalier.

Lintilhac, however, thinks that he has found proofs to the contrary in a letter which begins, "Ma pauvre Chevaliere, or whatever it pleases you to be with me...." London, Dec. 31, 1775. Gudin, in his life of Beaumarchais, says, "It was at a dinner of the Lord Mayor Wilkes that I encountered d'Eon for the first time. Struck to see the cross of St.

Louis shining on his breast, I asked Mlle. Wilkes who that chevalier was; she named him to me. 'He has,' I said, 'the voice of a woman.' It is probably from that fact that the talk has all come. At that time I knew nothing more about him; I was still ignorant of his relations with Beaumarchais. I soon learned them from herself. She avowed to me with tears (it appears to have been the manner of d'Eon-note of Lomenie) that she was a woman, and showed me her scars, remains of wounds which she had received, when, her horse killed under her, a squadron of cavalry pa.s.sed over her body and left her dying on the plain."

"No one," says Lomenie, "could be more navely mystified than is Gudin.

In the first period of the negotiation, d'Eon is full of attentions for Beaumarchais; he calls him his 'guardian angel' and sends him his complete works in fourteen volumes; for this curious being, this dragoon, woman and diplomat, was at the same time a most fruitful scribbler of paper. He has characterised himself very well in the following letter: 'If you wish to know me, Monsieur the Duke, I will tell you frankly that I am only good to think, imagine, question, reflect, compare, read, write, to run from the rising to the setting sun, from the south to the north, and to fight on the plain or in the mountains ... or I will use up all the revenues of France in a year, and after that give you an excellent treatise on economy. If you wish to have the proof, see all I have written in my history of finance, upon the distribution of public taxes.'"

This, then, was the strange being with whom Beaumarchais had to deal. On the 21st of June, 1775, he received from Vergennes the following letter, which shows in the best possible light the credit which the secret agent of the government had already acquired. He wrote:

"I have under my eyes, Monsieur, the report which you have given M. de Sartine of our conversation, touching M. d'Eon; it is of the greatest exact.i.tude; I have taken in consequence the orders of the King. His Majesty authorizes you to a.s.sure to M. d'Eon the regular payment of the pension of 12,000 francs.... The article of the payment of his debts is more difficult; the pretensions of d'Eon are very high in that respect; they must be considerably reduced if we are to come to any arrangement.... M. d'Eon has a violent character, but I do him the justice to believe that his soul is honest, and that he is incapable of treason.... It is impossible that M. d'Eon takes leave of the English King; the revelation of his s.e.x does not permit it; it would be ridiculous for both courts.... You are wise and prudent, you know mankind, and I have no doubt but that you will be able to arrange the affair with d'Eon, if it can be done. Should the enterprise fail in your hands, we shall be forced to consider that it cannot succeed and resolve to accept whatever may come from it.... I am very sensible, Monsieur, of the praises which you have been so good as to give me in your letter to M. de Sartine. I aspire to merit them, and accept them as a gage of your esteem, which will always be flattering to me. Count, I beg you, upon my own, and upon the sentiments with which I have the honor to be very sincerely, Monsieur, etc.

"De Vergennes.

"A Versailles, June 21st, 1775."

July 14, 1775, Beaumarchais wrote to M. de Vergennes announcing that he had obtained possession of the keys of the famous chest, which he had sealed with his own seal and which was deposited in a safe place.

"Whatever happens, M. le Comte, I believe that I have at least cut off one head of the English hydra ... the king and you may be quite certain that everything will rest in _statu quo_ in England, and that no one can abuse us from now to the end of the negotiation which I believe about finished." But in the meantime, while undertaking the settlement of the affair with d'Eon, the active mind of Beaumarchais had become enflamed with an ardent zeal for the cause of liberty, as it was being then defended on the other side of the Atlantic. "One of the first,"

says Gaillardet, "he had embraced the cause of the Americans, had espoused it with a sort of love that partook of idolatry.... He followed every phase with an interest which nothing discouraged, not ceasing to hope in the midst of reverses, triumphing and clapping his hands at every victory.... He excused their faults, exalted their virtues, plead for them with all the faculties of his _esprit_ and of his soul, before those whom he wished to interest in their fate."

Every voyage back to Paris, which the interests of his mission necessitated, every letter which it occasioned, was made to subserve itself to this one end which transcended all others; namely, to rouse the young King from that state of indecision and indifference to which he was born, and where he seemed likely to remain.

In the next chapter this subject will be taken up in all its detail; for the present it is necessary only to remind the reader that the matter of which we are now treating is all the while secondary in the mind of Beaumarchais. It is, however, of vital importance in that, at the beginning, it offers the avenue of approach to the King and his ministers which might otherwise have been wanting. Through the masterly way in which he settled the affair with d'Eon, the confidence of the King and of his minister was secured. Before the affair was terminated, an open channel had been established which permitted the whole current of the genius of Beaumarchais to flow direct to its goal.

It will be remembered that the Chevalier d'Eon had borrowed five thousand pounds of his friend the English Admiral, Lord Ferrers, and had left him as security the chest containing the famous correspondence of the late King. Before it could be delivered to Beaumarchais there were many difficult questions to settle, the chief one being the Chevalier's return to France, owing to the resentment still felt by the family of the Comte de Guerchy towards the Chevalier, and the latter's well known violence of temper. The King and M. de Vergennes demanded absolute oblivion of the past and a guarantee that no further scandals should arise. This was difficult to a.s.sure, owing to the fiery nature of the Chevalier. Already, as we have seen, the latter had avowed "with tears"

that he was a woman.

August 7th, 1775, M. de Vergennes wrote to the King, "If your Majesty deigns to approve the propositions of the Sieur de Beaumarchais to withdraw from the hands of the Sieur d'Eon the papers which it would be dangerous to leave there, I will authorize him to terminate the affair.

_If M. d'Eon wishes to take the costume of his s.e.x_, there will be no objection to allowing him to return to France, but under any other form he should not even desire it."

In a letter to Beaumarchais, the 26th of the same month, M. de Vergennes wrote: "Whatever desire I may have to see, to know, and to hear M.

d'Eon, I cannot hide from you a serious uneasiness which haunts me. His enemies watch, and will not pardon easily all that he has said of them.... If M. d'Eon would change his costume everything would be said.... You will make of this observation the use which you shall judge suitable."

The idea appeared not only good to Beaumarchais, but to offer, perhaps, the only solution to the difficulty. He therefore made this the condition of settlement of the debts of d'Eon, the continuation of his pension, as well as of his being allowed to return to France. The same motives which had actuated the Chevalier to declare himself a woman worked now in favor of what Beaumarchais, endowed with full power in his regard, demanded of him. Realizing, as M. de Vergennes had done, that if the matter were not now adjusted, it would never be again taken up; realizing too that his notoriety would be increased tenfold by this metamorphosis, he decided to submit to what was imposed upon him.

Early in October, Beaumarchais wrote to M. de Vergennes: "Written promises to be good are not sufficient to arrest a head which enflames itself always at the simple name of Guerchy; the positive declaration of his s.e.x and the engagement to live hereafter in the costume of a woman is the only barrier which can prevent scandal and misfortunes. I have required this and have obtained it."

As a matter of fact, on the 5th of October, the Chevalier signed the famous contract, in which he promised to deliver the entire correspondence of the late King, declared himself a woman and engaged to "retake and wear the costume of that s.e.x to the time of his death;" and he added with his own hand, "which I have already worn on divers occasions known to his Majesty." The agent of the French Government on his side agreed to deliver a contract or pension of 12,000 francs, as well as "more considerable sums which shall be remitted for the acquittal of the debts of the Chevalier in England." "Each of the contractants," said Lomenie, "reserved thus a back door; if the more considerable sums did not seem considerable enough, the Chevalier intended to keep a portion of the papers, so as to obtain still more funds. Beaumarchais, on his side, had no intention of paying all the debts which it should please the Chevalier to declare, and had demanded of the King the faculty to _batailler_-to employ his own expression-with the demoiselle d'Eon, from 100,000 to 150,000 francs, reserving the right to give him the money in fractional parts, and to extend or retract the sum according to the confidence which that cunning personage should inspire."

After the contract was signed, Beaumarchais still holding the money in reserve, demanded the papers of which it was questioned. The chest was produced. Suddenly realizing, however, that he had no authority to open the chest and to examine the contents, and having but small confidence in the veracity of the chevalier, he hastened back to Versailles, obtained the desired permission, and reappeared in London with his new commission. On opening the chest he found indeed that papers of but small importance were contained therein. D'Eon, blushing, confessed that the letters of which the French government desired to obtain possession were hidden under the floor of his room in London.

"She conducted me to her room," wrote Beaumarchais, "and drew from under the floor five boxes, well sealed and marked, 'Secret Papers to remit to the King alone', which she a.s.sured me contained all the secret correspondence, and the entire ma.s.s of the papers which she had in her possession. I began by making an inventory, and marking them all so that none could be withdrawn; but, better to a.s.sure myself that the entire sequence was there contained, I rapidly ran over them, while she made the inventory."

This want of honor in the Chevalier, whose security left with the Lord Ferrers had been proved of comparatively little value, dispensed Beaumarchais, so he considered, from the necessity of acquitting the full debt contracted by d'Eon. This was afterwards most bitterly reproached to him by the Chevalier. In a letter to Lord Ferrers, Beaumarchais wrote: "I have lived too long and know mankind too well to count upon the grat.i.tude of anyone, or to feel the least annoyance when I see those fail whom I have the most obliged." (From a letter dated Jan. 8, 1776, to Lord Ferrers,-Gaillardet.)