EON DE BEAUMONT, CHARLES GENEVIEVE LOUISE AU GUSTE ANDRE TIMOTHEE D' (1728-1810, commonly known as the CHEVALIER D'ION, French political adventurer, was born near Tonnerre in Burgundy on Oct. 7, 1728. He qualified as an advo cate and contributed to Freron's Annee litteraire. Sent by Louis XV. to Russia on a secret mission (i75) he adopted a woman's dress, in order to become reader to the Empress Eliza beth. He was sent on a second mission to Russia, and was fre quently employed on diplomatic errands during the Seven Years' War. He also served in the French army, and was wounded. In 1762 he was sent to London as agent, then as minister plenipo tentiary. He was superseded, involved in legal disputes with his successor, and raised gossip by his Les Loisirs du Chevalier d'Eon (Amsterdam, 1774). Bets were laid on his sex, and when he re turned to France the king decreed that he must wear woman's dress, which he did to the end of his life, though he frequently figured in fencing matches. He died in London on May 22, 1810. During the closing years of his life he is said to have enjoyed a small pension from George III. A post-mortem examination of the body conclusively established the fact that d'Eon was a man. The best modern accounts are in the duc de Broglie, Le Secret du roi (1888) ; J. B. Telfer, Strange Career of the Chevalier d'Eon (1888) ; A. E. Vizetelly, The True Story of the Chevalier d'Eon (1895) ; 0. Homberg and F. Jousselin, Le Chevalier d'Eon (1904); and A. Lang, Historical Mysteries (1904)•