he and the elders thought themselves much honored by my being one of their flock.  I never in my whole life felt greater surprise or received from it more consolation.  Living always alone and unconnected, appeared to me a melancholy destiny, especially in adversity.  In the midst of so many proscriptions and persecutions, I found it extremely agreeable to be able to say to myself:  I am at least amongst my brethren; and I went to the communion with an emotion of heart, and my eyes suffused with tears of tenderness, which perhaps were the most agreeable preparation to Him to whose table I was drawing near.

Sometime afterwards his lordship sent me a letter from Madam de Boufflers, which he had received, at least I presumed so, by means of D’Alembert, who was acquainted with the marechal.  In this letter, the first this lady had written to me after my departure from Montmorency, she rebuked me severely for having written to M. de Montmollin, and especially for having communicated.  I the less understood what she meant by her reproof, as after my journey to Geneva, I had constantly declared myself a Protestant, and had gone publicly to the Hotel de Hollande without incurring the least censure from anybody.  It appeared to me diverting enough, that Madam de Boufflers should wish to direct my conscience in matters of religion.  However, as I had no doubt of the purity of her intention, I was not offended by this singular sally, and I answered her without anger, stating to her my reasons.

Calumnies in print were still industriously circulated, and their benign authors reproached the different powers with treating me too mildly.  For my part, I let them say and write what they pleased, without giving myself the least concern about the matter.  I was told there was a censure from the Sorbonne, but this I could not believe.  What could the Sorbonne have to do in the matter?  Did the doctors wish to know to a certainty that I was not a Catholic?  Everybody already knew I was not one.  Were they desirous of proving I was not a good Calvinist?  Of what consequence was this to them?  It was taking upon themselves a singular care, and becoming the substitutes of our ministers.  Before I saw this publication I thought it was distributed in the name of the Sorbonne, by way of mockery:  and when I had read it I was convinced this was the case.  But when at length there was not a doubt of its authenticity, all I could bring myself to believe was, that the learned doctors would have been better placed in a madhouse than they were in the college.

I was more affected by another publication, because it came from a man for whom I always had an esteem, and whose constancy I admired, though I pitied his blindness.  I mean the mandatory letter against me by the archbishop of Paris.  I thought to return an answer to it was a duty I owed myself.  This I felt I could do without derogating from my dignity; the case was something similar to that of