invalid, the decision of the jury was thus recorded that the evidence before them was sufficient to prove D'Éon to be a woman. On 13 Aug. 1777 he left London, and a few days later presented himself at Versailles in his uniform as captain of dragoons. This brought on him an order ‘to resume the garments of her sex,’ forbidding him ‘to appear in any part of the kingdom in any other garments than those proper for a woman’ (19 Aug. 1777). He obtained, however, a short respite. He had no such clothes suitable to appear at court, and the queen was pleased to order him a complete outfit. On 21 Oct. the dresses were ready, and the transformation took place under the superintendence of Mlle. Bertin, one of the ladies-in-waiting. ‘She—D'Éon—was anointed with fragrant perfumes, her hair was curled, and a magnificent headdress put on her; her gown, petticoats, and stockings were of the richest materials, and she was adorned with bracelets, a necklace, earrings, and rings. … In this quality she was presented at court, and there compelled to remain two years that she might become moulded into her new condition’ (Telfer, p. 292). She was naturally a little awkward at first, as well as masculine in her speech and manners, concerning which many stories were put in circulation. On one occasion, it is said, she was asked by a lady if she would not regret her former condition and her arms, in case she wanted to demand satisfaction for any insult. ‘I have already considered this matter,’ she answered, ‘when I quitted my hat and sword; I own it gave me some concern; but I said to myself, what does it signify? I may do as much perhaps with my slipper.’
When the war with England broke out in 1778, D'Éon petitioned to be allowed to resume masculine attire, and to serve as a volunteer in the fleet. His petition was summarily refused, and in the course of the following year he went to Tonnerre, where his mother was still living. He seems to have resided there for the next six years, and in 1785 to have promptly availed himself of a permission to return to England. France had become distasteful to him, and he had many friends in England. On 9 April 1787 he appeared in public in an assault of arms, in which he specially distinguished himself by his dexterity in fencing, a dexterity which his feminine attire seemed to exaggerate.
It is unnecessary here to enter on an account of the pecuniary difficulties in which he was entangled, and which compelled him to exhibit in public as a means of livelihood. His distress culminated when the French Revolution put an end to his pension, leaving him without other support than what he derived from these exhibitions of fencing. On 26 Aug. 1796, being then sixty-eight years of age, he received a severe wound in the armpit, extending about four inches, and inflicted by a foil of which the button was accidentally broken. From the effects of this wound he seems never to have recovered, and to have been confined to the house, if not to his bed, for the remainder of his life, during which time he was supported partly by the sale of trinkets and curiosities in his possession, and partly by the charity of a wide circle of friends. He died 21 May 1810, and it was then—on laying out the body—discovered that he was a man. In the thirty-three years that had elapsed since he had been ordered to wear woman's attire, the doubts as to his sex had been almost forgotten; a Mrs. Cole, a woman of about the same age as D'Éon, and with whom he had lived for many years, had no suspicion of the fact, which, however, seems to be placed beyond doubt by the attested certificate of the surgeon who made a post-mortem examination of the body, and ‘found the male organs in every respect perfectly formed.’ And yet the body seems to have had many feminine characteristics. It is described as presenting ‘unusual roundness in the formation of the limbs. The throat was by no means masculine; breast remarkably full; arms, hands, and fingers those of a stout female; legs and feet corresponding with the arms.’ He was buried in the churchyard of St. Pancras, where a plain slab marked the spot, till 1868, when it was removed and lost or destroyed in carrying out works connected with the Midland Railway.
During his long life D'Éon was an inveterate scribbler, and left behind him a large number of manuscripts, many of which are now in the British Museum (Add. 11339–41, 29993–4). He published also several books and pamphlets, some historical, but for the most part relating to his quarrel with De Guerchy and his correspondence with his government. His ‘Considérations historiques sur les Impôts des Egyptiens,’ &c. has been already mentioned. Another work which may be named is entitled ‘Les Loisirs du Chevalier d'Éon de Beaumont … sur divers sujets importans d'Administration … pendant son séjour en Angleterre’ (13 vols. 8vo, Amsterdam, 1774). He left also, in manuscript, ‘Mémoires … pour servir à la vie du Comte de Vauban …,’ with a characteristic note that ‘the Chevalière d'Éon had been long engaged on this work; but her various occupations, military and political—sans compter les querelles d'Allemans et la guerre civile et incivile qu'elle a soutenue pendant de longues
