At this period I made another discovery of an extremely vexatious character; namely, that Le Duc had robbed me.  I would have forgiven him if he had not forced me to a public exposure, which I could only have avoided with the loss of my honour.  However, I kept him in my service till my return to Paris at the commencement of the following year.

Towards the end of September, when everybody knew that the Congress would not take place, the Renaud passed through Augsburg with Desarrnoises on her way to Paris; but she dared not come and see me for fear I should make her return my goods, of which she had taken possession without telling me.  Four or five years later she married a man named Bohmer, the same that gave the Cardinal de Rohan the famous necklace, which he supposed was destined for the unfortunate Marie Antoinette.  The Renaud was at Paris when I returned, but I made no endeavour to see her, as I wished, if possible, to forget the past.  I had every reason to do so, for amongst all the misfortunes I had gone through during that wretched year the person I found most at fault was myself.  Nevertheless, I would have given myself the pleasure of cutting off Desarmoises’s ears; but the old rascal, who, no doubt, foresaw what kind of treatment I was likely to mete to him, made his escape.  Shortly after, he died miserably of consumption in Normandy.

My health had scarcely returned, when I forgot all my woes and began once more to amuse myself.  My excellent cook, Anna Midel, who had been idle so long, had to work hard to satisfy my ravenous appetite.  My landlord and pretty Gertrude, his daughter, looked at me with astonishment as I ate, fearing some disastrous results.  Dr. Algardi, who had saved my life, prophesied a dyspepsia which would bring me to the tomb, but my need of food was stronger than his arguments, to which I paid no kind of attention; and I was right, for I required an immense quantity of nourishment to recover my former state, and I soon felt in a condition to renew my sacrifices to the deity for whom I had suffered so much.

I fell in love with the cook and Gertrude, who were both young and pretty.  I imparted my love to both of them at once, for I had foreseen that if I attacked them separately I should conquer neither.  Besides, I felt that I had not much time to lose, as I had promised to sup with Madame, d’Urfe on the first night of the year 1761 in a suite of rooms she had furnished for me in the Rue de Bac.  She had adorned the rooms with superb tapestry made for Rene of Savoy, on which were depicted all the operations of the Great Work.  She wrote to me that she had heard that Santis had recovered from the wound I had given him, and had been committed to the Bicetre for fraud.