M. du Perou was an American, son to a commandant of Surinam, whose successor, M. le Chambrier, of Neuchatel, married his widow.  Left a widow a second time, she came with her son to live in the country of her second husband.

Du Perou, an only son, very rich, and tenderly beloved by his mother, had been carefully brought up, and his education was not lost upon him.  He had acquired much knowledge, a taste for the arts, and piqued himself upon his having cultivated his rational faculty:  his Dutch appearance, yellow complexion, and silent and close disposition, favored this opinion.  Although young, he was already deaf and gouty.  This rendered his motions deliberate and very grave, and although he was fond of disputing, he in general spoke but little because his hearing was bad.  I was struck with his exterior, and said to myself, this is a thinker, a man of wisdom, such a one as anybody would be happy to have for a friend.  He frequently addressed himself to me without paying the least compliment, and this strengthened the favorable opinion I had already formed of him.  He said but little to me of myself or my books, and still less of himself; he was not destitute of ideas, and what he said was just.  This justness and equality attracted my regard.  He had neither the elevation of mind, nor the discrimination of the lord marshal, but he had all his simplicity:  this was still representing him in something.  I did not become infatuated with him, but he acquired my attachment from esteem; and by degrees this esteem led to friendship, and I totally forgot the objection I made to the Baron Holbach:  that he was too rich.

For a long time I saw but little of Du Perou, because I did not go to Neuchatel, and he came but once a year to the mountain of Colonel Pury.  Why did I not go to Neuchatel?  This proceeded from a childishness upon which I must not be silent.

Although protected by the King of Prussia and the lord marshal, while I avoided persecution in my asylum, I did not avoid the murmurs of the public, of municipal magistrates and ministers.  After what had happened in France it became fashionable to insult me; these people would have been afraid to seem to disapprove of what my persecutors had done by not imitating them.  The ‘classe’ of Neuchatel, that is, the ministers of that city, gave the impulse, by endeavoring to move the council of state against me.  This attempt not having succeeded, the ministers addressed themselves to the municipal magistrate, who immediately prohibited my book, treating me on all occasions with but little civility, and saying, that had I wished to reside in the city I should not have been suffered to do it.  They filled their Mercury with absurdities and the most stupid hypocrisy, which, although, it makes every man of sense laugh, animated the people against me.  This, however, did not prevent them from setting forth that I ought to be very grateful for their permitting me to live at Motiers, where