Note 217 — Chapter X

This arrangement requires explanation. At the time of the Hugonnet incident, de Broglio, full of concern lest the history of the secret correspondence, in which he was the most prominently concerned, should become generally known, and rather than that any such other accident should occur, expressed to the King his readiness to proceed to London, and to guarantee, by a mortgage on his own estates, the annual pension to D’Eon of 12,000 livres, by way of effectually obtaining from him the desired papers. Louis XV. had the meanness to approve of this security on his royal word, and this proposed settlement being communicated to the Chevalier, he readily acquiesced, save that he required the mortgage to extend to the estates of the countess, which were larger than those of her husband.