My regret at arriving so soon at Turin was compensated by the
pleasure of viewing a large city, and the hope of figuring there in
a conspicuous character, for my brain already began to be
intoxicated with the fumes of ambition; my present situation
appeared infinitely above that of an apprentice, and I was far from
foreseeing how soon I should be much below it.
Before I proceed, I ought to offer an excuse, or justification to
the reader, for the great number of unentertaining particulars I am
necessitated to repeat. In pursuance of the resolution I have formed
to enter on this public exhibition of myself, it is necessary that
nothing should bear the appearance of obscurity or concealment. I
should be continually under the eye of the reader, he should be
enabled to follow me in all the wanderings of my heart, through
every intricacy of my adventures; he must find no void or chasm in
my relation, nor lose sight of me in an instant, lest he should find
occasion to say, what was he doing at this time; and suspect me of not
having dared to reveal the whole: I give sufficient scope to malignity
in what I say; it is unnecessary I should furnish still more by my
silence.
My money was all gone, even that I had secretly received from
Madam de Warrens: I had been so indiscreet as to divulge this
secret, and my conductors had taken care to profit by it. Madam Sabran
found means to deprive me of everything I had, even to a ribbon
embroidered with silver, with which Madam de Warrens had adorned the
hilt of my sword; this I regretted more than all the rest; indeed
the sword itself would have gone the same way, had I been less
obstinately bent on retaining it.
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