Unlikely Allies Page 32

  I flew to Hartford, Connecticut. The Connecticut Historical Society is located in a house adjacent to the University of Connecticut School of Law, where, coincidentally, I used to teach. The archivist showed me several boxes that looked as if they had not been opened in generations. I found letters to and from George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Louis XVI, John Jay, Robert Morris, Benedict Arnold, and many others. The story they revealed was an astonishing tale of innocence and intrigue—idealism, struggle, betrayal, and survival. I was hooked. I put my other manuscript aside and began six years of research in the United States, France, and England, and an enduring relationship with Deane, Beaumarchais, and d’Eon.

  My research was greatly facilitated by the library staff at the U.C. Hastings College of the Law, especially Vince Moyer, who can find anything. My research assistants, Jean-Paul Buchannan, Stephen Miller, Ryan McCord, Chris Nolan, and Jakob Zollmann tolled many hours with microfiche and old manuscripts, helping me to uncover the full story. And Simona Angelucci, Jennifer Holly, Sophie Hub scher, Natacha Ivacheff-Kolb, Pauline Marcel, and Leo Spanos helped translate many of the documents from the archives of La ministère des Affaires étrangères in Paris.

  Professors Robert Gross, Reuel Schiller, and William Taubman generously read drafts of my manuscript and helped me to sharpen my focus. I owe a special debt to Professor Gross, who first inspired my interest in the American Revolution in his class at Amherst College. Simon Burrows, Jonathan Conlin, Gary Kates, James Lander, Linda Meditz, Kenneth Minkema, Brian Morton, Donald Spinelli, and Douglas Winiarski were kind enough to share with me some of their historical expertise. Amber Cushing, Librarian at the New Hampshire State Archives; Lesley Whitelaw, Archivist of the Middle Temple; Jeff Collins, the archivist at the First Congregational Church of Wethersfield; Charles Lyle, the director of the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum in Wethersfield; photographer Ruth Hanks; and Mathieu da Vinha, Coordinator of the Research Center at the Château de Versailles were also very helpful.

  I am grateful to my literary agent, Doe Coover, and to my editor, Jake Morrissey, for giving an unknown writer a chance to tell an unfamiliar story. Sarah Bowlin, Ed Cohen, Claire McGinnis, and Kate Moreau were wonderful to work with at Riverhead. And I appreciate the generous support of my patient colleagues at the U.C. Hastings College of the Law, especially Deans Mary Kay Kane, Shauna Marshall, and Nell Newton.

  I was blessed with great friends who thoughtfully commented on many drafts, pushed me to do better, and sustained me for six years, including Corky Ellis, Bob Graubard, David Friend, Mark Hager, Elise Kroeber, Jane Shulman, James Sloan, Bertrand Vandeville, and Linden Wise. My friend and publicist Jan Saragoni Bradley and my consultant Roger Williams were invaluable. I am especially grateful to my friend and talented mentor Paul Aron, who spent countless hours advising, editing, and encouraging me through the whole process of this book, and to Rick Steele and Susan Nance, who helped me to find my voice.

  I hope my effort is worthy of your confidence, friendship, and support.

  NOTES

  INTRODUCTION

  2 Voltaire once famously: Quoted in Vizetelly, True Story of the Chevalier d’Eon, i.

  2 Beaumarchais once wrote: Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro, act 3, sc. 3.

  CHAPTER 1

  5 On the morning: Letter, Edward Bancroft to Joseph Priestley, May 8, 1790, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 533-36.

  6 Captain Davis disembarked: After Deane’s death, the box was delivered with his other personal items conveyed on the Boston Packet to his brother Barnabas, who sold the box but retained the portrait of Louis XVI. Letter, Barnabas Deane to Theodore Hopkins, February 25, 1790, Deane Papers, vol. 5, 533.

  7 One newspaper reported: Extract from a London paper in the American Mercury, December 28, 1789, reprinted in Deane Papers, vol. 5, 532-33.

  7 The Gentleman’s Magazine: From The Gentleman’s Magazine (1789), 866, reprinted in Deane Papers, vol. 5, 31.

  7 When Thomas Jefferson: Letter, Jefferson to Madison, August 28, 1789, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Series 1, General Correspondence, available at www.memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers.

  8 The smithy was: Wolf, As Various As Their Land, 178-83.

  9 To enroll at: Dexter, Biographical Sketches, vol 2, 3-5, 521.

  9 Deane rose at: Morgan, “Ezra Stiles,” 254-55.

  10 At his graduation: Dexter, Biographical Sketches, vol. 2, 521-23.

  10 Unlike many of: Isaac Watts, The Knowledge of the Heavens and the Earth made easy; or, the First Principles of Astronomy and Geography Explain’d by the use of Globes and Maps (London, 1726), quoted in Morgan, “Ezra Stiles,” 204.

  15 This was the policy”: Edmund Burke, “Speech for Conciliation with the Colonies,” House of Commons, March 22, 1775.

  15 Britain prohibited merchants: Alden, History of the American Revolution, 35- 42.

  15 The other major: Wood, The American Revolution, 17-18

  16 The nonimportation movement: Ferling, A Leap in the Dark, 30-43, 53-57, 85-86; Wood, The American Revolution, 32-35.

  17 Following the enactment: Quoted in Clark, Silas Deane, 17.

  17 In his elegant script: Silas Deane’s Latin Dissertation, 1755, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University Library.

  CHAPTER 2

  21 Despite a talented cast: Lemaître, Beaumarchais, 82; Grendel, Beaumarchais, 44-46.

  22 From an early age: Dalsème, Beaumarchais, 3-4.

  22 Possessing a sharp mind: Lever, Beaumarchais (trans. Emanuel), 4-6.

  22 The young Caron: Quoted in Kite, Beaumarchais and the War of American Independence , vol. 1, 52.

  23 Caron’s defiance and brilliance: Grendel, Beaumarchais, 5-10.

  23 Now tall and slender: Dalsème, Beaumarchais, 24-26.

  24 Madame Francquet: Ibid., 27-28; Lever, Beaumarchais (trans. Emanuel), 10-12.

  24 In the spring of 1760: Lever, Beaumarchais I, 118.

  25 Pâris-Duverney, who was unmarried: Ibid., 120.

  25 Pâris-Duverney gave him: Dalsème, Beaumarchais, 38-41; Lever, Beaumarchais (trans. Emanuel), 16-17, 43.

  26 Beaumarchais teased Pâris-Duverney: Letter, Beaumarchais to Duverney, June 15, 1770, quoted in Dalsème, Beaumarchais, 79.

  26 The plain language: Lever, Beaumarchais I, 120, 332.

  27 While sodomy was officially: Blanc, “The ‘Italian Taste’ in the Time of Louis XVI,” 69-84. Lever writes that some of his contemporaries thought that Pâris-Duverney was guilty of the “Socratic sin,” and that Beaumarchais had “deployed charm and seductiveness in the old man’s company.” Moreover, their “strange letters” were characteristic of sodomites. Lever, Beaumarchais (trans. Emanuel), 48.

  27 Pâris-Duverney introduced Beaumarchais: Lever, Beaumarchais I, 121-25.

  27 On a poster: Dalsème, Beaumarchais, 70.

  CHAPTER 3

  31 Jonathan’s was located: Straus, Lloyd’s, 47-61, 81-89; Wright and Fayle, A History of Lloyd’s, 6-19, 90-105.

  32 There was always someone: Worsley and Griffith, The Romance of Lloyd’s, 114- 24.

  32 On this particular Saturday; Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 184.

  32 In a thick accent: Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 139-40; Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 84.

  33 One of d’Eon’s biographers: Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 275.

  33 Christened Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d’Eon: Beaumont, The Maiden of Tonnerre, 3-4.

  33 From an early age: Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 4-6.

  34 Once, while serving: Quoted in Telfer, The Strange Career, 14.

  34 Even in his middle years: Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 3-5; Nixon, Royal Spy, 160-61.

  35 Louis XV had sent: Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 26.

  35 According to d’Eon’s version: Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 67.

  35 According to d’Eon, Conti: Quoted in Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 67-71.

&
nbsp; 36 Some scholars doubt: Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 72-76.

  36 A copy of a letter: Nixon, Royal Spy, 33-35.

  37 What is indisputable: Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 73.

  37 When the British ambassador’s: Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 16-23.

  38 D’Eon later wrote: D’Eon, “The Great Historical Epistle by the Chevalière d’Eon, 1785,” translated in Beaumont, The Maiden of Tonnerre, 14; Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 31-40.

  38 According to one version of d’Eon’s story: Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 74-76.

  38 D’Eon later claimed: Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 20-22; Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 70-76; Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 30-31; Telfer, The Strange Career, 13-19.

  38 Once the empress agreed: Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 40-42.

  39 He was wounded: According to a certificate of commendation signed by Marshall de Broglie on December 24, 1761; quoted in Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 56-57.

  40 Louis XV wrote to d’Eon: Letter, Louis XV to d’Eon, June 3, 1763, quoted in Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 93.

  41 He was, in fact: Gaillardet, The Memoirs of Chevalier d’Eon, xiv.

  41 The French Foreign Ministry balked: Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 97- 98.

  42 At that point, d’Eon claimed: Quoted in Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont , 75-76.

  42 The tone of d’Eon’s letters: Letter, Duc de Praslin to d’Eon, 1763, quoted in Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 77.

  42 His correspondence with Praslin: Letter, d’Eon to Duc de Praslin, September 25, 1763, quoted in Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 79.

  42 D’Eon warned a friend: Letter, d’Eon to Claude Pierre de Sainte Foy, September 25 1763, quoted in Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 100.

  43 His extravagance quickly depleted: Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 34-35, 43-44.

  43 To the Comte de Guerchy: Letter, d’Eon to Comte de Guerchy, September 25, 1763, quoted in Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 79-80.

  CHAPTER 4

  45 The Comte de Guerchy arrived: Gaillardet, Memoirs of Chevalier d’Eon, xviii; Beaumont, The Maiden of Tonnerre, xiv; Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 62.

  46 Conscious of the growing threat: Letter, d’Eon to Louis XV, November 18, 1763, quoted in Gaillardet, Memoirs of Chevalier d’Eon, 138-45; Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 118-120.

  47 The British attorney-general: Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 102- 12; Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 66-68.

  47 D’Eon responded to his guilty verdict: Letter, d’Eon to Louis XV, November 18, 1763, quoted in Gaillardet, Memoirs of Chevalier d’Eon, 138-45; Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 118-23; Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 130- 31; Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 57-58.

  48 Frightened for his life: Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 102-3; Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 59; Johnson, The Ghost Map, 16.

  48 Fearing imminent arrest: Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 61.

  49 He wrote the king’s secretary: Letter, d’Eon to Jean-Pierre Tercier, March 23, 1764, Archives de ministère des Affaires étrangères (Paris), Correspondance politique, Angleterre, Supplement 13, 156-67, quoted in Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 118.

  49 The king and Broglie knew: Quoted in Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 77-78.

  50 One story was that a Russian: Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 191-92; Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 136.

  50 A second possibility: Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 135; Cox, The Enigma of the Age, 63.

  50 A third is that d’Eon: Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 194.

  50 Louis XV, who could: Letter, Louis XV to General Monet, October 28, 1770, Correspondance secrète inédite de Louis XV, sur la politique étrangère, ed. Edgar Boutaric (Paris, 1866), vol. 1, 411-412, quoted in Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 182.

  50 The Marquise du Deffand: Horace Walpole, Memoirs, vol. 4, 493.

  50 A London paper reported: London Evening Post, March 9-12, 1771, quoted in Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 183.

  51 A flattering poem: Letter, Louis XV to General Monet, October 28, 1770, quoted in Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 182-83.

  51 Reportedly, as much as 60,000 pounds: Clark, Betting on Lives, 45-48; Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, March 11, 13, and 16, 1771, quoted in Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 184.

  51 To Comte de Broglie: Quoted in Homberg and Jousselin, D’Eon de Beaumont, 141.

  CHAPTER 5

  53 Geneviève had lost: Grendel, Beaumarchais, 47.

  54 Once he joked: Quoted in Ibid., 49.

  55 The comte once exclaimed: Quoted in Lemaître, Beaumarchais, 88.

  56 Beaumarchais wrote cryptically: Quoted in Dalsème, Beaumarchais, 76.

  56 La Blache sent: Lemaître, Beaumarchais, 88; Lever, Beaumarchais (trans. Emanuel), 48-50.

  56 Regretting the interference: Quoted in Lever, Beaumarchais (trans. Emanuel), 45.

  56 Beaumarchais and Pâris-Duverney set up: Lemaître, Beaumarchais, 89.

  57 Years later, in the sweet-scented: Quoted in Lever, Beaumarchais I, 121.

  57 Beaumarchais’s wife gave: Lever, Beaumarchais (trans. Emanuel), 40-41.

  57 Vicious rumors circulated: Lever, Beaumarchais (trans. Emanuel), 42.

  58 With Pâris-Duverney gone: Dalsème, Beaumarchais, 81-87.

  58 He would later remark that La Blache: Quoted in Grendel, Beaumarchais, 51.

  58 Madame Goëzman bluntly admitted: Quoted in Lever, Beaumarchais (trans. Emanuel), 68.

  58 The judge’s wife demanded: Lemaître, Beaumarchais, 112-14; Lever, Beaumarchais (trans. Emanuel), 68-70.

  59 To make matters worse: Lemaître, Beaumarchais, 98-108.

  59 After the court’s judgment: Lever, Beaumarchais (trans. Emanuel), 71.

  60 On the street, Parisians joked: Quoted in Ruskin, Spy for Liberty, 56.

  60 Even Voltaire exclaimed: Dalsème, Beaumarchais, 148.

  60 Though Beaumarchais felt vindicated: Quoted in Lemaître, Beaumarchais, 129.

  60 Sartine advised Beaumarchais: Grendel, Beaumarchais, 108.

  61 He wrote to the man: Ibid., 110

  61 La Borde invited Beaumarchais: Nixon, Royal Spy, 157-158; Telfer, Strange Career , 233; Loménie, Beaumarchais and His Times, 208; Dalsème, Beaumarchais, 166-167. The physical description here is based upon the location of the king’s wardrobe and La Borde’s apartments at that time according to the Research Center at the Château de Versailles.

  62 La Borde offered Beaumarchais: Lemaître, Beaumarchais, 132-36.

  62 He left immediately for London: Morton and Spinelli, Beaumarchais and the American Revolution, 7; Lemaître, Beaumarchais, 138.

  63 In May 1774, Beaumarchais returned: Lever, Beaumarchais (trans. Emanuel), 71.

  63 As one of Louis XV’s secret agents: Dalsème, Beaumarchais, 174.

  63 A month later Beaumarchais: Lever, Beaumarchais (trans. Emanuel), 88-89.

  63 Neither Sartine nor the king: Loménie, Beaumarchais and His Times, 211; Lemaître, Beaumarchais, 141-42.

  64 Beaumarchais proceeded to London: Loménie, Beaumarchais and His Times, 211-23; Lemaître, Beaumarchais, 141-52.

  64 When the crusading Beaumarchais: Grendel, Beaumarchais, 119-33; Dalsème, Beaumarchais, 199-200.

  64 Whether anyone still believed: Quoted in Lever, Beaumarchais (trans. Emanuel), 95.

  65 Once again, the king refused: Lemaître, Beaumarchais, 156.

  65 Refusing to admit his own deceit: Letter, Beaumarchais to Sartine, December 11, 1774, quoted in Dalsème, Beaumarchais, 205.

  66 Louis XVI thought d’Eon’s demands: Letter, Louis XVI to Vergennes, January 26, 1775, Correspondance secrète inédite, vol. 2, 445, quoted in Kates, Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, 219.