To thePRINTER.
In my former letter I furnished your readers with an anecdote relative to Mr. ********. This man, who is connected with his Grace the D. of G. by the apron-stringtenure; the present modish, and by much the strongest of all holds, has been constantly and most secretly employed for these last six weeks, as a go-between to the D. of G. and the Soi-disant l’Homme de Charactere, M. D’Eon.
To throw a veil over this mysterious negociation, and in order to blind the eyes of the prying public, the pretty Frenchman who lives in Petty France, has for this fortnight past been roaring out in every coffee-house he frequents, that Mr. ********, the go-between above-mentioned, has betrayed his most sacred secrets to the D. of G. and the whole B———d junto. This flimsy, gausy device, was no sooner made public, but it was seen through by every tyro in politics. And the Frenchman was compelled by his new employers to lay aside the mask. He was ordered by this new sett of masters, who will always tyrannize over him in proportion to the pension they give him: he was ordered I say flatly to deny every circumstance in Dr. Musgrave’s patriotic letter, and boldly to assert, “that he never entered into any treaty for the sale of his papers.” Nothing is so easy to a Frenchman, especially if they have been once initiated into the diplomatic corps, as to assert one thing for another, where they know they cannot for the present moment be detected. But what will the good people of England think of the veracity of this same Frenchman, when I call upon him in this public manner to declare for whatreason, at whose instigation, and for what valuable consideration in money, he suppressed the publication ofthose three lettersrelative to the late peace-makers?
I know, Mr. Printer, I speak ænigmatically to the generality of your readers, when I talk of three letters. But the D. of B———d understands me; Lord B—— understands me; and D’Eon, if he has any regard for truth, ought to blush at the bare mention of those three letters. There is but one moral tie can bind a French gentleman, that is, his word of honour. Let D’Eon then, if he dare, lay his hand upon his Croix de St. Louis, and swear, upon hishonour, that he never received directly or indirectly, without equivocation, or mental reservation, any money, pension, emolument, or promise, for suppressing the publication of the three letters in question, and he shall either be credited, or publickly confuted, by
TheBRITISH SPY.