Madam Boy de la Tour proposed to me to go and reside in an uninhabited but completely furnished house, which belonged to her son in the village of Motiers, in the Val de Travers, in the county of Neuchatel.  I had only a mountain to cross to arrive at it.  The offer came the more opportunely, as in the states of the King of Prussia I should naturally be sheltered from all persecution, at least religion could not serve as a pretext for it.  But a secret difficulty:  improper for me at that moment to divulge, had in it that which was very sufficient to make me hesitate.  The innnate love of justice, to which my heart was constantly subject, added to my secret inclination to France, had inspired me with an aversion to the King of Prussia, who by his maxims and conduct, seemed to tread under foot all respect for natural law and every duty of humanity.  Amongst the framed engravings, with which I had decorated my alcove at Montmorency, was a portrait of this prince, and under it a distich, the last line of which was as follows: 

          Il pense en philosophe, et se conduit en roi.

          [He thinks like a philosopher, and acts like a king.]

This verse, which from any other pen would have been a fine eulogium, from mine had an unequivocal meaning, and too clearly explained the verse by which it was preceded.  The distich had been, read by everybody who came to see me, and my visitors were numerous.  The Chevalier de Lorenzy had even written it down to give it to D’Alembert, and I had no doubt but D’ Alembert had taken care to make my court with it to the prince.  I had also aggravated this first fault by a passage in ‘Emilius’, where under the name of Adrastus, king of the Daunians, it was clearly seen whom I had in view, and the remark had not escaped critics, because Madam de Boufflers had several times mentioned the subject to me.  I was, therefore, certain of being inscribed in red ink in the registers of the King of Prussia, and besides, supposing his majesty to have the principles I had dared to attribute to him, he, for that reason, could not but be displeased with my writings and their author; for everybody knows the worthless part of mankind, and tyrants have never failed to conceive the most mortal hatred against me, solely on reading my works, without being acquainted with my person.

However, I had presumption enough to depend upon his mercy, and was far from thinking I ran much risk.  I knew none but weak men were slaves to the base passions, and that these had but little power over strong minds, such as I had always thought his to be.  According to his art of reigning, I thought he could not but show himself magnanimous on this occasion, and that being so in fact was not above his character.  I thought a mean and easy vengeance would not for a moment counterbalance his love of glory, and putting myself in his place, his taking advantage of circumstances to overwhelm with the weight of his generosity a man who had dared to think ill of him, did not appear to me impossible.  I therefore went to settle at Motiers, with a confidence of which I imagined he would feel all the value, and said to myself:  When Jean Jacques rises to the elevation of Coriolanus, will Frederick sink below the General of the Volsci?