He was called by the
people of the country the Baron de Sauttern, by which name he had been
recommended from Zurich. He was tall, well made, had an agreeable
countenance, and mild and social qualities. He told everybody, and
gave me also to understand, that he came to Neuchatel for no other
purpose, than that of forming his youth to virtue, by his
intercourse with me. His physiognomy, manner, and behavior, seemed
well suited to his conversation, and I should have thought I failed in
one of the greatest duties had I turned my back upon a young man in
whom I perceived nothing but what was amiable, and who sought my
acquaintance from so respectable a motive. My heart knows not how to
connect itself by halves. He soon acquired my friendship, and all my
confidence, and we were presently inseparable. He accompanied me in
all my walks, and became fond of them. I took him to the marechal, who
received him with the utmost kindness. As he was yet unable to explain
himself in French, he spoke and wrote to me in Latin, I answered in
French, and this mingling of the two languages did not make our
conversations either less smooth or lively. He spoke of his family,
his affairs, his adventures, and of the court of Vienna, with the
domestic details of which he seemed well acquainted. In fine, during
two years which we passed in the greatest intimacy, I found in him a
mildness of character proof against everything, manners not only
polite but elegant, great neatness of person, an extreme decency in
his conversation, in a word, all the marks of a man born and
educated a gentleman, and which rendered him in my eyes too
estimable not to make him dear to me.
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