de Francueil had the goodness to wait a
considerable time before he disposed of my place. At length,
perceiving me inflexibly resolved, he gave it to M. d'Alibard,
formerly tutor to the young Chenonceaux, and known as a botanist by
his Flora Parisiensis.*
* I doubt not but these circumstances are now differently related by
M. Francueil and his consorts; hut I appeal to what he said of them at
the time, and long afterwards, to everybody he knew, until the forming
of the conspiracy, and of which, men of common sense and honor, must
have preserved a remembrance.
However austere my sumptuary reform might be, I did not at first
extend it to my linen, which was fine and in great quantity, the
remainder of my stock when at Venice, and to which I was
particularly attached. I had made it so much an object of cleanliness,
that it became one of luxury, which was rather expensive. Some person,
however, did me the favor to deliver me from this servitude. On
Christmas Eve, whilst the women-folk were at vespers, and I was at the
spiritual concert, the door of a garret, in which all our linen was
hung up after being washed, was broken open. Everything was stolen;
and amongst other things, forty-two of my shirts, of very fine
linen, and which were the principal part of my stock. By the manner in
which the neighbors described a man whom they had seen come out of the
hotel with several parcels whilst we were all absent, Theresa and
myself suspected her brother, whom we knew to be a worthless man.
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