On quitting the Ile de Saint-Pierre he travelled to Strasbourg, where he was warmly received, and thence to Paris, arriving in that city on December I6, 1765.  The Prince de Conti provided him with a lodging in the Hotel Saint-Simon, within the precincts of the Temple—­a place of sanctuary for those under the ban of authority.  ’Every one was eager to see the illustrious proscript, who complained of being made a daily show, “like Sancho Panza in his island of Barataria.”  During his short stay in the capital there was circulated an ironical letter purporting to come from the Great Frederick, but really written by Horace Walpole.  This cruel, clumsy, and ill-timed joke angered Rousseau, who ascribed it to, Voltaire.  A few sentences may be quoted: 

“My Dear Jean-Jacques,—­You have renounced Geneva, your native place.  You have caused your expulsion from Switzerland, a country so extolled in your writings; France has issued a warrant against you:  so do you come to me.  My states offer you a peaceful retreat.  I wish you well, and will treat you well, if you will let me.  But, if you persist in refusing my help, do not reckon upon my telling any one that you did so.  If you are bent on tormenting your spirit to find new misfortunes, choose whatever you like best.  I am a king, and can procure them for you at your pleasure; and, what will certainly never happen to you in respect of your enemies, I will cease to persecute you as soon as you cease to take a pride in being persecuted.  Your good friend,
          
                              “Frederick.”

Early in 1766 David Hume persuaded Rousseau to go with him to England, where the exile could find a secure shelter.  In London his appearance excited general attention.  Edmund Burke had an interview with him and held that inordinate vanity was the leading trait in his character.  Mr. Davenport, to whom he was introduced by Hume, generously offered Rousseau a home at Wootton, in Staffordshire, near the, Peak Country; the latter, however, would only accept the offer on condition that he should pay a rent of L 30 a year.  He was accorded a pension of L 100 by George III., but declined to draw after the first annual payment.  The climate and scenery of Wootton being similar to those of his native country, he was at first delighted with his new abode, where he lived with Therese, and devoted his time to herborising and inditing the first six books of his Confessions.  Soon, however, his old hallucinations acquired strength, and Rousseau convinced himself that enemies were bent upon his capture, if not his death.  In June, 1766, he wrote a violent letter to Hume, calling him “one of the worst of men.”  Literary Paris had combined with Hume and the English Government to surround him—­as he supposed —­with guards and spies; he revolved in his troubled mind all the reports and rumours he had heard for months and years; Walpole’s forged letter rankled in his bosom; and in the spring of 1767 he fled; first to Spalding, in Lincolnshire, and subsequently to Calais, where he landed in May.