For a long time I saw but little of Du Perou, because I did not go
to Neuchatel, and he came but once a year to the mountain of Colonel
Pury. Why did not I go to Neuchatel? This proceeded from a
childishness upon which I must not be silent.
Although protected by the King of Prussia and the lord marshal,
while I avoided persecution in my asylum, I did not avoid the
murmurs of the public, of municipal magistrates and ministers. After
what had happened in France it became fashionable to insult me;
these people would have been afraid to seem to disapprove of what my
persecutors had done by not imitating them. The classe of Neuchatel,
that is, the ministers of that city, gave the impulse, by
endeavoring to move the council of state against me. This attempt
not having succeeded, the ministers addressed themselves to the
municipal magistrate, who immediately prohibited my book, treating
me on all occasions with but little civility, and saying, that had
J. wished to reside in the city I should not have been suffered to
do it. They filled their Mercury with absurdities and the most
stupid hypocrisy, which, although it made every man of sense laugh,
animated the people against me. This, however, did not prevent them
from setting forth that I ought to be very grateful for their
permitting me to live at Motiers, where they had no authority; they
would willingly have measured me the air by the pint, provided I had
paid for it a dear price. They would have it that I was obliged to
them for the protection the king granted me in spite of the efforts
they incessantly made to deprive me of it.
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