I never had been so embarrassed in my whole life as I then was;
but my resolution was taken. I swore, let what would happen, not to
sleep at the Hermitage on the night of that day week. I began to
prepare for sending away my effects, resolving to leave them in the
open field rather than not give up the key in the course of the
week: for I was determined everything should be done before a letter
could be written to Geneva, and an answer to it received. I never felt
myself so inspired with courage: I had recovered all my strength.
Honor and indignation, upon which Madam d'Epinay had not calculated,
contributed to restore me to vigor. Fortune aided my audacity. M.
Mathas, fiscal procuror, heard of my embarrassment. He sent to offer
me a little house he had in his garden of Mont-Louis, at
Montmorency. I accepted it with eagerness and gratitude. The bargain
was soon concluded: I immediately sent to purchase a little
furniture to add to that we already had. My effects I had carted
away with a deal of trouble, and at a great expense: notwithstanding
the ice and snow my removal was completed in a couple of days, and
on the fifteenth of December, I gave up the keys of the Hermitage,
after having paid the wages of the gardener, not being able to pay
my rent.
With respect to Madam le Vasseur, I told her we must part; her
daughter attempted to make me renounce my resolution, but I was
inflexible. I sent her off to Paris in the carriage of the messenger
with all the furniture and effects she and her daughter had in common.
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