The day after my departure I had so perfectly forgotten what had passed, the parliament, Madam de Pompadour, M.de Choiseul, Grimm, and D'Alembert, with their conspiracies, that, had not it been for the necessary precautions during the journey I should have thought no more of them.The remembrance of one thing which supplied the place of all these was what I had read the evening before my departure.Irecollect, also, the pastorals of Gessner, which his translator Hubert had sent me a little time before.These two ideas occurred to me so strongly, and were connected in such a manner in my mind, that I was determined to endeavor to unite them by treating after the manner of Gessner the subject of the Levite of Ephraim.His pastoral and simple style appeared to me but little fitted to so horrid a subject, and it was not to be presumed the situation I was then in would furnish me with such ideas as would enliven it.However, Iattempted the thing, solely to amuse myself in my cabriolet, and without the least hope of success.I had no sooner begun than I was astonished at the liveliness of my ideas, and the facility with which I expressed them.In three days I composed the first three cantos of the little poem which I finished at Motiers, and I am certain of not having done anything in my life in which there is a more interesting mildness of manners, a greater brilliancy of coloring, more simple delineations, greater exactness of proportion, or more antique simplicity in general, notwithstanding the horror of the subject which in itself is abominable, so that besides every other merit I had still that of a difficulty conquered.If the Levite of Ephraim be not the best of my works, it will ever be that most esteemed.I have never read, nor shall I ever read it again without feeling interiorly the applause of a heart without acrimony, which, far from being embittered by misfortunes, is susceptible of consolation in the midst of them, and finds within itself a resource by which they are counterbalanced.Assemble the great philosophers, so superior in their books to adversity which, they do not suffer, place them in a situation similar to mine, and, in the first moments of the indignation of their injured honor, give them a like work to compose, and it will be seen in what manner they will acquit themselves of the task.
When I set off from Montmorency to go into Switzerland, I had resolved to stop at Yverdon, at the house of my old friend Roguin, who had several years before retired to that place, and had invited me to go and see him.I was told Lyons was not the direct road, for which reason I avoided going through it.But I was obliged to pass through Besancon, a fortified town, and consequently subject to the same inconvenience.I took it into my head to turn about and to go to Salins, under the pretense of going to see M.de Mairan, the nephew of M.Dupin, who had an employment at the salt-works, and formerly had given me many invitations to his house.The expedient succeeded: M.de Mairan was not in the way, and, happily, not being obliged to stop, I continued my journey without being spoken to by anybody.
The moment I was within the territory of Berne, I ordered the postillion to stop; I got out of my carriage, prostrated myself, kissed the ground, and exclaimed in a transport of joy: "Heaven, the protector of virtue, be praised, I touch a land of liberty!" Thus, blind and unsuspecting in my hopes, have I ever been passionately attached to that which was to make me unhappy.The man thought me mad.
I got into the carriage, and a few hours afterwards I had the pure and lively satisfaction of feeling myself pressed within the arms of the respectable Roguin.Ah! let me breathe for a moment with this worthy host! It is necessary I should gain strength and courage before Iproceed further.I shall soon find that in my way which will give employment to them both.It is not without reason that I have been diffuse in the recital of all the circumstances I have been able to recollect.Although they may seem uninteresting, yet, when once the thread of the conspiracy is got hold of, they may throw some light upon the progress of it; and, for instance, without giving the first idea of the problem I am going to propose, afford some aid in resolving it.
Suppose that, for the execution of the conspiracy of which I was the object, my absence was absolutely necessary, everything tending to that effect could not have happened otherwise than it did; but if without suffering myself to be alarmed by the nocturnal embassy of Madam de Luxembourg, I had continued to hold out, and, instead of remaining at the castle, had returned to my bed and quietly slept until morning, should I have equally had an order of arrest made out against me? This is a great question upon which the solution of many others depends, and for the examination of it, the hour of the comminatory decree of arrest, and that of the real decree may be remarked to advantage.A rude but sensible example of the importance of the least detail in the exposition of facts, of which the secret causes are sought for to discover them by induction.
End of Book XI