Leaving Paris under the name of Léonard, for the second time as the King’s secret envoy to Russia, but armed upon this occasion with private credentials from M. Rouillé, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and ‘a great deal of money to dispose of,’ Douglas passed through Dantzig, and Riga where he falsely represented himself as envoy extraordinary from France to Russia, and was accordingly received as such by the governor of that town. With equal disregard to the truth, he made it his business upon this journey to spread the report that in the treaty concluded between England and Prussia there was a secret article whereby the former Power was to pay to the latter an annual subsidy of 200,000l.! He arrived at St. Petersburg on April 22 (N.S.), requested an interview of the Vice-Chancellor at 9 P.M. for the same evening—obtained it—and forthwith delivered a letter from M. Rouillé, with friendly messages on the part of the King. Shortly afterwards he was presented at Court as a Scottish gentleman in the service of France, to the delight of Louis XV. and his ministers.[20]

When questioned by Sir Hanbury Williams, the Vice-Chancellor admitted that Douglas was entrusted with a commission from the King of France, although not in an official capacity. He could give no information on the nature of that commission, but Sir Hanbury might rest assured that the Court of Russia would not enter into anything with France that could be prejudicial to the interests of England. It was not the first time, he said, that France had made overtures to Russia, but he was too well acquainted with the French nation ever to be their dupe, and he should not fail to give further information when in a position to do so. Within twenty-four hours of this conversation, the Chancellor Bestoujeff declared to Sir Hanbury that he was kept quite out of the secret, and knew nothing of Douglas’ return until his arrival at Riga.[21]

When D’Eon again made his appearance at St. Petersburg, Douglas was simply delighted. ‘I am very greatly pleased at the arrival of M. D’Eon,’ he wrote to M. Rouillé; ‘I have been long acquainted with his intelligence, his zeal, and attachment to his work. He will be very useful to me, and also of good service to the King. He is steady and prudent....’[22]

Chancing to call one morning on Count Woronzoff, the British ambassador was not admitted. In the court-yard was Douglas’ coach. The next day Woronzoff sent for Baron Wolff, to tell him the reason he had not received Sir Hanbury was because Douglas being with him, he did not know whether the English ambassador would have liked to meet him. Sir Hanbury, who naturally looked upon Douglas as a rebel of the first water, since he was actually in the service of England’s enemies, replied that if such was the message, the excuse was worse than the fault, for he refused to be put upon a level with such a fellow as Douglas.

The Treaty of Versailles (May 1, 1756) had placed Douglas and Count Esterhazy upon an entirely new footing. Their lengthened conferences, at first held secretly in a third place, and their growing intimacy, prevented Sir Hanbury from conversing any longer with the Austrian minister on matters of business. French subjects were invited to consider themselves under the protection of the Empress-Queen’s ambassador, and Russia’s ministers at foreign courts were instructed to live on good terms with those of France. Such were the political changes in progress, when Elizabeth openly professed her desire to renew diplomatic relations with the King of France.

M. Rouillé’s courteous letter of February 9, presented to the Vice-Chancellor by Douglas upon the same evening of his arrival at St. Petersburg, and in which, by way of precaution, should the letter have miscarried, the secret envoy was spoken of as being a librarian, was as courteously answered under date of April 20 (O.S.). A long ‘Mémoire,’ also handed to Douglas for transmission to the French minister, in reply to the friendly advances made by Louis XV., and in which are expressed her Imperial Majesty’s views on drawing closer together the improving relations between Russia and France, contains this passage:—

In July, Douglas was accredited Chargé d’Affaires to the Court of Russia, taking up his residence at the Apraxin Palace, near the Summer Palace, D’Eon being appointed Secretary of Legation, and entrusted with the secret correspondence; communicating with the Prince de Conti, and with the King through Tercier, and still the medium of intercourse between the Empress and Woronzoff on the one hand, and Louis XV. on the other; by which arrangement Douglas was enabled to entertain uninterrupted relations with Elizabeth and Woronzoff on subjects of a nature to be kept concealed from Bestoujeff Riumin.

As the Treaty of Subsidies, an acknowledged fact between England and Russia, was set at naught by England’s Neutrality Treaty with Prussia, so did Elizabeth cast the former to the winds, and in due course unite herself to the French-Austrian alliance, in spite of all that Catherine and Bestoujeff could do to prevent such a thing. Frederick’s sarcasms had no more spared the Empress of Russia and the Empress-Queen than Madame de Pompadour, and the licentious Elizabeth thought it worth her while to retaliate by expressing her indignation at the King of Prussia’s little concern in matters of religion. ‘He does not believe in God! He never goes to Church! There is nothing that is sacred in his eyes!’ Some years had passed since she uttered those words; she had not forgiven him, now she was joining the coalition against that monarch, and so was about to begin what is known as the Seven Years’ War.

The eighty thousand men for whom Sir Hanbury had bargained were assembled in Livonia under Count Apraxin,[24] the firm friend of Bestoujeff, when they shortly entered Poland. The war was commenced by the Austrians, the first to receive Frederick’s fire and under Marshal Daun to defeat him at Kolin (June 18), afterwards marching upon Berlin and bearing away all the tribute money they could collect. Their German allies invaded Prussia from Saxony, the Swedes not long delaying in entering Pomerania, and the French attacking out of Hanover after having occupied Embden (July 3). Hearing that Apraxin had taken Memel, Frederick sent Field-Marshal Lewald with twenty-five thousand men to keep him in check, and a battle was fought at Gross-Jägersdorff near Königsberg (August 30), in which the Russians overpowered the enemy simply through force of numbers. Frederick being left with about twenty thousand men only, began to fear that all was lost, when the astounding intelligence reached him that the Russians, ‘who were more easily killed than beaten,’ were withdrawing towards their own frontier—a movement executed during the illness, believed to be serious, of Elizabeth, who no sooner heard of Apraxin’s strange doings, than she ordered him to be recalled and his conduct investigated. But the field-marshal did not long survive his return, and why he failed to follow up the advantages he had gained by the most complete of victories, was never explained by himself. Later, his reasons were guessed!

D’Eon had quitted St. Petersburg in April, entrusted by the Empress with private letters to Maria Theresa and Louis XV.; he was the bearer to the Courts of Vienna and Versailles of Elizabeth’s friendly assurances that the Treaty of Subsidies with England was no longer of effect, and that the eighty thousand men she had assembled in Livonia and Courland should henceforth act in concert with the forces of Austria and France. He was also charged to deliver the ratification to the Treaty of Versailles, the plan to be pursued by the Russian army in its operations with the Austrian and French troops, and other papers of considerable importance relating to secret transactions in which he had borne a part; and, further, he was commissioned by Count Schouvaloff to take with him fifty thousand livres in gold, being a gift from the Empress to Voltaire, who had received her Majesty’s commands to write the life of Peter—specie D’Eon lodged with the bankers Hermani and Dietrich, at Strasburg, on his way through that town.

In her letter to the King, Elizabeth referred to D’Eon in flattering terms as having been instrumental in conducing to the happy results which necessitated the journey he was about to take, and ‘as a mark of her favour’ she presented him with a gratuity of three hundred ducats.[25]

When D’Eon first went to Russia, one commission entrusted to him was to obtain for the Prince de Conti, from the Empress, the command-in-chief of the Russian army and the principality of Courland; the secret aim of the prince being, through such means, to work his way gradually to the throne of Poland, and to that of Russia by marrying Elizabeth. Douglas and D’Eon had met with success on the two first points, which alone had been mooted to the Empress, and D’Eon’s errand to Versailles included the Empress’ and Woronzoff’s assurances to the prince that he should have the command of the army and the principality of Courland, if the King would....[26] The rest is obliterated by D’Eon in his letter.

One result of Douglas’ and D’Eon’s labours was the appointment of an ambassador to the Court of Russia in the person of the Marquis de l’Hôpital; but a whole year having elapsed between that minister’s nomination and departure for his post, it so happened that when D’Eon got to Bieloyēstok on his way to Vienna, the two met, to the great advantage of the marquis, as he himself subsequently avowed; for he was supplied with so much useful practical information, upon a country of which he knew literally nothing, as a somewhat hurried interview would allow.

It was nightfall on the day that D’Eon got to the gates of Vienna, where a little incident occurred which serves to illustrate at least one trait in his character.

Although provided with passports that should have assured freedom from all kind of molestation or delay, the Customs’ officers refused to allow him to enter the city without first searching his effects. Obstinately objecting to submit to what he considered a gross indignity, but feeling himself under the circumstances to be the weakest, he made up his mind to pass the night outside the walls. A sergeant of hussars going his rounds offered the stranger a shelter in the guard-room. There being no French ambassador at Vienna, D’Eon sent, in the early morning, an account of his night’s adventure to Baron de Toussaint, a favourite of the Emperor, which resulted in the dismissal of the two Customs’ officers and the promotion of the sergeant to the rank of lieutenant.[27]

At Vienna D’Eon found the Count de Broglio, French minister to Poland, who had received orders to pass through that capital, and there concert such alterations as might be considered advisable in the plan prepared by Marshal D’Estrées for the ensuing campaign; a measure facilitated by D’Eon’s timely appearance with the Russian plan of operations and his intimate knowledge of Russian affairs, which proved of invaluable service to the count. During his hurried stay at Vienna, news were received of the battle of Prague (May 6), ‘the bloodiest battle of the age,’ as Frederick called it, and de Broglio at once despatched him to carry the gratifying intelligence to Versailles. The hot haste in which he had travelled from St. Petersburg was not to be compared to the diligence he employed in bearing such additional good tidings; he managed to outstrip by thirty-six hours the special courier sent by Prince Kaunitz to Count Staremberg, Austrian ambassador at Paris, although he reached his destination with a broken leg, caused by the overturning of the coach in his headlong journey; the accident and its cause only serving to intensify the interest already felt in the young secretary, who was attended by the King’s own surgeon immediately upon arrival.

D’Eon met with a most flattering reception by the Cardinal de Bernis, Foreign Minister, and Marshal de Belle-Isle, Minister of War, and a month or two later he received a handsome gold snuff-box, with portrait, from the King, inside which he found a gratuity from the privy purse, and, what he prized most, a commission as lieutenant of dragoons.

D’Eon’s employment being still secret, and chiefly so in the King’s service, as well as public in the quality of Secretary of Legation, he was bound to apply for permission to convey to the Prince de Conti the message entrusted to him at St. Petersburg. It was granted by the King.

D’Eon had several interviews and some secret correspondence with the Prince de Conti upon the success of his mission to St. Petersburg; but the Prince and Madame de Pompadour were no longer on good terms, she being too exacting to suit his pride, and the King would or could not make up his mind in favour of his kinsman.

D’Eon was anxious to take to Russia a decided answer of some sort, and when on his next journey he halted five days at Strasburg by desire of the Prince, who hoped to overtake him there with some favourable settlement of his case. But nothing came.

D’Eon never wasted his time. Whilst laid up under surgical treatment, enduring no little suffering from the resetting of a broken limb, he worked at collating a mass of useful information he had obtained in Russia from various sources, producing a valuable ‘Mémoire,’ upon which he was complimented by King and ministers. In this ‘Mémoire,’ Gaillardet includes a document which has been the subject-matter of frequent controversy, its authenticity being discredited and derided—the will of Peter the Great; but he negligently omits to state where he consulted the copy of the will in D’Eon’s own hand, and as we have been unable to verify the existence of such a copy we forbear reproducing it, because otherwise it has no place here, and leave the task to some one more favoured than we could expect to be, in searching amongst the French archives.

In a monograph which appeared at Brussels in 1863,[30] the author fathers the will of Peter the Great on Napoleon I., and ascribes the earliest publication of it to Lesur in his ‘Des Progrès de la puissance Russe, depuis son origine jusqu’au commencement du XIXᵐᵉ siècle,’ printed in 1812 under the immediate superintendence of the French Government, at the time that the Emperor was preparing for the invasion of Russia. In this pamphlet Gaillardet (in whose fanciful story of the Chevalier D’Eon, edition of 1836, the author read the will) is charged with having reproduced the will from the pages of Lesur.

On receiving his commission in the army D’Eon applied for active service, having grown tired and become disgusted with the intrigues of a life at Court, and the sight of troops in Courland, Prussia, Silesia, and Moravia, when upon his journey from Russia, having ‘only served to inspire him with martial ardour.’ But he was too precious and too useful in Russia to be allowed to have his own way. The Marquis de l’Hôpital was pressing him to return to St. Petersburg. ‘My dear little fellow, I have learnt with pain of your accident, and with great pleasure of your interviews with the Old and New Testaments.[31] Come, live out the Gospel with us, and rely upon my friendship and esteem.’ To which Douglas added: ‘I also embrace you, my dear cripple, and hope you will have left before the arrival of this letter to join your worthy protector, who will be a father to you.’ Over and above all, the King’s ministers expressed the wish that D’Eon should return to Russia with the least possible delay to perform a particular piece of service, for which he was specially qualified.

It so happened that D’Eon had discovered the existence of a secret correspondence between the grand-duke, assisted by Bestoujeff, and the King of Prussia, whose interests they preferred to serve, Apraxin and Todleben, the Empress’s two generals in command of her army on the field; the design being to keep the Russian troops in a state of inaction, and thus deprive the newly-allied Courts of the advantages to be derived from the treaties so happily brought about by Douglas and himself. D’Eon alone seemed to have knowledge of this surreptitious intercourse, and being required to bring it to light it was manifest that he should return to Russia.

In September D’Eon left Paris, again as the sole confidential correspondent of Louis XV. He was supplied with copies of the instructions sent to the French ambassador at St. Petersburg and of those from Prince Kaunitz to Count Esterhazy, and he was ordered to concert measures with Count Woronzoff for disclosing to the Empress the Grand Chancellor’s treachery. He also took with him a letter to Woronzoff, in which Tercier repeated the King’s desire to entertain a secret correspondence with the Empress.[33] Douglas was at the same time on his way to Versailles, having been recalled at the request of Bestoujeff, who was informed by the French ambassador that the recall was an accomplished fact, done as a favour to him.[34]

The announcement of D’Eon’s approaching arrival was received with ill-concealed concern by the Grand Chancellor, who suggested to the Marquis de l’Hôpital the desirability of this appointment being cancelled. He represented D’Eon to be a dangerous person whom they would not cease to mistrust, for they believed him capable of overturning the empire; an unguarded speech, producing a result contrary to what was desired by Bestoujeff, for de l’Hôpital only called the more loudly for his new secretary, whose presence was feared by the Prussian party.[37]

D’Eon was now in Russia for the third time.

Meeting the English ambassador at dinner one evening, the conversation turned upon the trial and execution of Admiral Byng. D’Eon observed that for his part he was very sorry for the admiral. ‘Why?’ inquired the ambassador. ‘Because,’ replied D’Eon, ‘he was a great friend to France: he never did her any harm!’

Invited upon another occasion to join in an English dance, D’Eon said that his business at St Petersburg was not to dance English dances, but to make the English jump!’[38]

D’Eon relates an incident that occurred in November, shortly after his arrival at St. Petersburg. Prince Poniatovsky, envoy extraordinary from Poland, wrote to ask him for certain information on events then passing, his letter being accompanied by a diamond of the value of eight thousand livres. As a matter of course D’Eon handed over the letter and the bribe to the ambassador, by whom the gem was immediately returned to the Polish minister, who got into such a passion that he threw it into the fire. De l’Hôpital reported the circumstance to the Cardinal de Bernis, and the King’s promise was made that such an act of fidelity should be rewarded by the presentation to the secretary of a sum of equal value to the diamond; but Bernis’ disgrace and exile caused the matter to be forgotten.[39]

D’Eon was well known to Poniatovsky, who did not forget him in after years, his proficiency in the art of fencing being one of the accomplishments that rendered him a favourite with those at Court, and he frequently dined with the grand-duke, with Prince Charles (for a time Duke of Courland), or with Poniatovsky, the evenings being spent in fencing. If pressure of work prevented him from accepting the invitations he received, the French ambassador was scolded by those personages for having detained him at the Embassy.[40]

On February 24, 1758, the Grand Chancellor, Bestoujeff Riumin, was arrested by order of Elizabeth, whilst presiding at a council of ministers. Amidst his papers, which were all seized, was found a scheme for disposing of certain persons obnoxious to him, amongst whom were included Douglas and D’Eon.[41] He was charged with high treason, the French and Austrian ambassadors being loud in their condemnation of his criminal purposes. At the same time were arrested several other persons having constant access to the Grand-Duchess Catherine, such, for instance, as her secretary, her tutor in the Russian language, jeweller, &c., and she herself became the object of so great obloquy that she demanded permission to withdraw to Germany, a step the Empress refused to sanction.

The conjectures formed to account for Bestoujeff’s perfidy were various, but it was generally accepted that Elizabeth, having been seriously indisposed and her death apprehended, the Grand Chancellor was anxious to secure Catherine’s favour by withholding the Russian forces from taking part in further hostilities against Frederick. He also aimed at securing the succession of her child to the exclusion of the grand-duke, his father, with the nomination of herself to the regency, or even her own elevation to the throne. This view of the case received confirmation in after years, for Bestoujeff was never permitted to return from exile until the accession of Catherine.

When under arrest, Bestoujeff was treated with unusual consideration, notwithstanding the general feeling against him from his known intimacy with Apraxin, the cause of so much national disgrace. He was detained for a time a prisoner in his own house, escaping the tortures to which others, equally compromised with himself, had been subjected; and, although designated ‘a traitor grown old in iniquity,’ it was decreed in the imperial manifesto ordering his trial, that ‘no severity was to be employed for the purpose of exacting his evidence or confession; but whatever he chose to say was to be noted.’

Bestoujeff was exiled to one of his estates, and Woronzoff succeeded him as Grand Chancellor.

After the Bestoujeff affair, the Empress renewed her efforts—this time through his superiors—to induce D’Eon to enter her service.

It was not at the hands of the Empress of Russia that D’Eon cared to receive honours. For his important services at the Court of that monarch he was promoted by Louis XV. to the rank of captain of dragoons, and awarded a pension of two hundred ducats, to be paid by the Count de Broglio out of the secret service money.

In the course of this year D’Eon found time to publish a work, in two volumes, entitled ‘Confédérations 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 present.’[45]