on her by the King of Sardinia.  I felt myself extremely humiliated at being supposed to want the assistance of a good and charitable lady.  I had no objection to be accommodated with everything I stood in need of, but did not wish to receive it on the footing of charity and to owe this obligation to a devotee was still worse; notwithstanding my scruples the persuasions of M. de Pontverre, the dread of perishing with hunger, the pleasures I promised myself from the journey, and hope of obtaining some desirable situation, determined me; and I set out though reluctantly, for Annecy.  I could easily have reached it in a day, but being in no great haste to arrive there, it took me three.  My head was filled with the ideas of adventures, and I approached every country-seat I saw in my way, in expectation of having them realized.  I had too much timidity to knock at the doors, or even enter if I saw them open, but I did what I dared—­which was to sing under those windows that I thought had the most favorable appearance; and was very much disconcerted to find I wasted my breath to no purpose, and that neither old nor young ladies were attracted by the melody of my voice, or the wit of my poetry, though some songs my companions had taught me I thought excellent and that I sung them incomparably.  At length I arrived at Annecy, and saw Madam de Warrens.

As this period of my life, in a great measure, determined my character, I could not resolve to pass it lightly over.  I was in the middle of my sixteenth year, and though I could not be called handsome, was well made for my height; I had a good foot, a well turned leg, and animated countenance; a well proportioned mouth, black hair and eyebrows, and my eyes, though small and rather too far in my head, sparkling with vivacity, darted that innate fire which inflamed my blood; unfortunately for me, I knew nothing of all this, never having bestowed a single thought on my person till it was too late to be of any service to me.  The timidity common to my age was heightened by a natural benevolence, which made me dread the idea of giving pain.  Though my mind had received some cultivation, having seen nothing of the world, I was an absolute stranger to polite address, and my mental acquisitions, so far from supplying this defect, only served to increase my embarrassment, by making me sensible of every deficiency.

Depending little, therefore, on external appearances, I had recourse to other expedients:  I wrote a most elaborate letter, where, mingling all the flowers of rhetoric which I had borrowed from books with the phrases of an apprentice, I endeavored to strike the attention, and insure the good will of Madam de Warrens.  I enclosed M. de Pontverre’s letter in my own and waited on the lady with a heart palpitating with fear and expectation.  It was Palm Sunday, of the year 1728; I was informed she was that moment gone to church; I hasten after her, overtake, and speak to her.—­The place is yet fresh in my memory—­how can it be otherwise? often have I moistened it with my tears and covered it with kisses.—­Why cannot I enclose with gold the happy spot, and render it the object of universal veneration?  Whoever wishes to honor monuments of human salvation would only approach it on their knees.