DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70301#0019
MEMOIRS of the chevalier d’eon. 7
deavouring to seize him illegally, a method of reasoning that
will have no weight with an English jury in case of the mur-
der of an innocent man; but the laws of all justify the kill-
ing of an assassin, or one hired on purpose to commit a per-
sonal violence, whether the person attacked be a stranger or a
native.”
In March, 1764, a bill of indictment was found against the
Count de Guerchy for a conspiracy against the life of the
Chevalier; and the process preparing by the latter against
him was said to have perplexed the ministry; ambassadors
being by the laws of nations exempted from the ordinary
forms of law in the countries where they are resident. A
house in Scotland-yard was, November 20, 1764, forcibly
ransacked in search of D’Eon, and in doing it a door broken
open by six persons, some of them well known, in conse-
quence, as they said, of orders from above—a thing not at
all improbable, considering into what misdemeanours, it 1S
reasonable to think, the Chevalier’s indiscretion and ignorance
of our laws might have betrayed him—misdemeanours, per-
haps, sufficient to justify even more violent proceedings in
searching for and apprehending the person guilty of them.
The Chevalier, not having surrendered himself to the Court
of King’s Bench to receive judgment for the libel of which
he had been found guilty, was, June 13, 1765, declared out-
lawed.
In what manner he behaved, or where he resided for some
time after this procedure, we are not informed; but it seems
most probable that he retired to his native country, where his
sovereign, notwithstanding any public expression of disappro-
bation, still honoured him with his confidence, as a proof of
which he continued in correspondence with D’Eon till his
death. Louis likewise gave the Chevalier substantial marks
of the sense which he entertained of his services, for which
he in 1757 granted him a pension of three thousand livres, in
1760 another of two thousand, and in 1766, a third from his
deavouring to seize him illegally, a method of reasoning that
will have no weight with an English jury in case of the mur-
der of an innocent man; but the laws of all justify the kill-
ing of an assassin, or one hired on purpose to commit a per-
sonal violence, whether the person attacked be a stranger or a
native.”
In March, 1764, a bill of indictment was found against the
Count de Guerchy for a conspiracy against the life of the
Chevalier; and the process preparing by the latter against
him was said to have perplexed the ministry; ambassadors
being by the laws of nations exempted from the ordinary
forms of law in the countries where they are resident. A
house in Scotland-yard was, November 20, 1764, forcibly
ransacked in search of D’Eon, and in doing it a door broken
open by six persons, some of them well known, in conse-
quence, as they said, of orders from above—a thing not at
all improbable, considering into what misdemeanours, it 1S
reasonable to think, the Chevalier’s indiscretion and ignorance
of our laws might have betrayed him—misdemeanours, per-
haps, sufficient to justify even more violent proceedings in
searching for and apprehending the person guilty of them.
The Chevalier, not having surrendered himself to the Court
of King’s Bench to receive judgment for the libel of which
he had been found guilty, was, June 13, 1765, declared out-
lawed.
In what manner he behaved, or where he resided for some
time after this procedure, we are not informed; but it seems
most probable that he retired to his native country, where his
sovereign, notwithstanding any public expression of disappro-
bation, still honoured him with his confidence, as a proof of
which he continued in correspondence with D’Eon till his
death. Louis likewise gave the Chevalier substantial marks
of the sense which he entertained of his services, for which
he in 1757 granted him a pension of three thousand livres, in
1760 another of two thousand, and in 1766, a third from his