News of Bompard's defeat reached Paris at the end of October. Matilda appealed in person to Talleyrand, La Révellière-Lépeaux (then president of the Directory), Bruix and the Dutch ambassador to claim Tone as a prisoner of war. She was received with particular kindness by Talleyrand, who was to remain a good friend to the family through successive regimes. Talleyrand and La Révellière assured her that France would intervene on Tone's behalf and that English officers who were prisoners in France would be held to account for his safety. Matilda also enlisted the help of Kilmaine and De Winter, both of whom responded in terms showing their esteem for Tone. She herself was preparing to travel to Ireland when news came through at the end of November of Tone's death.

France would almost certainly have made some representation on behalf of Tone. There were many precedents, and Niou was a particularly effective official. Aware of the danger to the Irish if they were discovered among the French prisoners of war in England, he worked quickly and successfully to ensure their exchange. It is doubtful, however, whether such intercession would have made any difference in Tone's case. His French uniform was as much an aggravation of his offence as a British one had been to the royalists at Quiberon.

Tone had been accepted in France almost as an honorary Frenchman. The French newspapers devoted an unusual amount of attention to his court-martial and death. It was of course good propaganda, this soldier of liberty martyred by the English. But the newspaper coverage represented a cross-section of opinion, much of it anti-government. Tone was recognised both by the press and his former military colleagues as a distinguished French officer. He had settled well into military life and become increasingly removed from the Irish mission in consequence. His indignation at the dishonour shown the French uniform by his treatment was quite genuine, even if the authorities in Ireland considered it a startling piece of impudence.

Matilda at twenty-nine, and again pregnant, was left destitute by Tone's death. His last plea to the Directory to help his family produced immediate relief of 1,200 francs and assurances of a pension.