Therefore, in my narrative of
circumstances relative to myself, of the treatment I have received,
and all that has happened to me, I shall not be able to indicate the
hand by which the whole has been directed, nor assign the causes,
while I state the effect. The primitive causes are all given in the
preceding books; and everything in which I am interested, and all
the secret motives pointed out. But it is impossible for me to
explain, even by conjecture, that in which the different causes are
combined to operate the strange events of my life. If amongst my
readers one even of them should be generous enough to wish to
examine the mystery to the bottom, and discover the truth, let him
carefully read over a second time the three preceding books,
afterwards at each fact he shall find stated in the books which
follow, let him gain such information as is within his reach, and go
back from intrigue to intrigue, and from agent to agent, until he
comes to the first mover of all. I know where his researches will
terminate; but in the meantime I lose myself in the crooked and
obscure subterraneous path through which his steps must be directed.
During my stay at Yverdon, I became acquainted with all the family
of my friend Roguin, and amongst others with his niece, Madam Boy de
la Tour, and her daughters, whose father, as I think I have already
observed, I formerly knew at Lyons. She was at Yverdon, upon a visit
to her uncle and his sister; her eldest daughter, about fifteen
years of age, delighted me by her fine understanding and excellent
disposition.
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