Note 338 — Chapter XVI

I will quote from one among the several sensational descriptions of D’Eon’s personal appearance, scarcely thinking it necessary to remind the reader that she was not a colonel, nor had she been at Fontenoy. ‘... He was at the period referred to about forty-seven years of age, tall and muscular, swarthy, sunburnt, weather-beaten, scarred, having been wounded in several engagements, since, as a youth of fifteen, he began his career at Fontenoy.... For many years this bold colonel of dragoons has been known as the Chevalier Eon de Beaumont.... From under the shade of his thick shaggy eyebrows gleam a pair of bright bold-looking eyes ... in his triple row of ruffles, mantelet à la reine, and bonnet à la baigneuse surmounting a row of grizzly curls, he looks a very odd figure of fun.’—French Court and Society, Reign of Louis XVI. and First Empire, by Catherine Charlotte, Lady Jackson. 1881.