Royal Spy: The Strange Case of the Chevalier D'Eon - Dressed as a Man He Was None the Less a Woman; Dressed as a Woman She Was None the Less a Man.

260 pp. 8vo. The Chevalier D'Eon served as Louis XV's first secret agent, and his first mission involved masquerading as a young lady in waiting to the Russian Empress. He fought in the Seven Years War and held several political positions, and lived the last thirty-three years of his life as a woman on the orders of King Louis XVI. His surname is the origin of the term 'eonism', which is synonymous with transvestitism. "An interesting biography of the 18th century French diplomat, spy and fencing master, the Chevalier d'Eon, who was anatomically a male, but lived half his life as a woman."