before they were published.  My negligence and the confidence I had in M. Mathas, in whose garden I was shut up, frequently made me forget to lock the door at night, and in the morning I several times found it wide open; this, however, would not have given me the least inquietude had I not thought my papers seemed to have been deranged.  After having several times made the same remark, I became more careful, and locked the door.  The lock was a bad one, and the key turned in it no more than half round.  As I became more attentive, I found my papers in a much greater confusion than they were when I left everything open.  At length I missed one of my volumes without knowing what was become of it until the morning of the third day, when I again found it upon the table.  I never suspected either M. Mathas or his nephew M. du Moulin, knowing myself to be beloved by both, and my confidence in them was unbounded.  That I had in the gossips began to diminish.  Although they were Jansenists, I knew them to have some connection with D’ Alembert, and moreover they all three lodged in the same house.  This gave me some uneasiness, and put me more upon my guard.  I removed my papers from the alcove to my chamber, and dropped my acquaintance with these people, having learned they had shown in several houses the first volume of ‘Emilius’, which I had been imprudent enough to lend them.  Although they continued until my departure to be my neighbors I never, after my first suspicions, had the least communication with them.  The ‘Social Contract’ appeared a month or two before ‘Emilius’.  Rey, whom I had desired never secretly to introduce into France any of my books, applied to the magistrate for leave to send this book by Rouen, to which place he sent his package by sea.  He received no answer, and his bales, after remaining at Rouen several months, were returned to him, but not until an attempt had been made to confiscate them; this, probably, would have been done had not he made a great clamor.  Several persons, whose curiosity the work had excited, sent to Amsterdam for copies, which were circulated without being much noticed.  Maulion, who had heard of this, and had, I believe, seen the work, spoke to me on the subject with an air of mystery which surprised me, and would likewise have made me uneasy if, certain of having conformed to every rule, I had not by virtue of my grand maxim, kept my mind calm.  I moreover had no doubt but M. de Choiseul, already well disposed towards me, and sensible of the eulogium of his administration, which my esteem for him had induced me to make in the work, would support me against the malevolence of Madam de Pompadour.