At the period of which I am now speaking this man,
who had filled Europe with his fame, was living at Paris, in a
state bordering upon indigence. I must here mention, that it was
owing to my solicitation that he had been permitted to return
from his exile, I having successfully interceded for him with
the chancellor and the attorney-general. M. Seguier made no
difficulty to my request, because he looked upon Jean Jacques
Rousseau as the greatest enemy to a set of men whom he mortally
hated--the philosophers. Neither did M. de Maupeou, from the
moment he effected the overthrow of the parliament, see any
objection to bestowing his protection upon a man whom the
parliaments had exiled. In this manner, therefore, without his
being aware of it, Rousseau owed to me the permission to
re-enter Paris. Spite of the mortifying terms in which this
celebrated writer had spoken of the king's mistresses, I had a
lively curiosity to know him; all that his enemies repeated of
his uncouthness, and even of his malicious nature, far from
weakening the powerful interest with which he inspired me, rather
augmented it, by strengthening the idea I had previously formed
of his having been greatly calumniated. The generous vengeance
which he had recently taken for the injuries he had received
from Voltaire particularly charmed me.* I thought only how I
could effect my design of seeing him by one means or another,
and in this resolution I was confirmed by an accident which befell
me one day.
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