The only Frenchman who seemed to come to see me, on account of my sentiments, and his taste for my works, was a young officer of the regiment of Limousin, named Seguier de St. Brisson.  He made a figure in Paris, where he still perhaps distinguishes himself by his pleasing talents and wit.  He came once to Montmorency, the winter which preceded my catastrophe.  I was pleased with his vivacity.  He afterwards wrote to me at Motiers, and whether he wished to flatter me, or that his head was turned with Emilius, he informed me he was about to quit the service to live independently, and had begun to learn the trade of a carpenter.  He had an elder brother, a captain in the same regiment, the favorite of the mother, who, a devotee to excess, and directed by I know not what hypocrite, did not treat the youngest son well, accusing him of irreligion, and what was still worse, of the unpardonable crime of being connected with me.  These were the grievances, on account of which he was determined to break with his mother, and adopt the manner of life of which I have just spoken, all to play the part of the young Emilius.  Alarmed at his petulance, I immediately wrote to him, endeavoring to make him change his resolution, and my exhortations were as strong as I could make them.  They had their effect.  He returned to his duty, to his mother, and took back the resignation he had given the colonel, who had been prudent enough to make no use of it, that the young man might have time to reflect upon what he had done.  St. Brisson, cured of these follies, was guilty of another less alarming, but, to me, not less disagreeable than the rest:  he became an author.  He successively published two or three pamphlets which announced a man not devoid of talents, but I have not to reproach myself with having encouraged him by my praises to continue to write.

Some time afterwards he came to see me, and we made together a pilgrimage to the island of St. Pierre.  During this journey I found him different from what I saw of him at Montmorency.  He had, in his manner, something affected, which at first did not much disgust me, although I have since thought of it to his disadvantage.  He once visited me at the hotel de St. Simon, as I passed through Paris on my way to England.  I learned there what he had not told me, that he lived in the great world, and often visited Madam de Luxembourg.  Whilst I was at Trie, I never heard from him, nor did he so much as make inquiry after me, by means of his relation Mademoiselle Seguier, my neighbor.  This lady never seemed favorably disposed towards me.  In a word, the infatuation of M. de St. Brisson ended suddenly, like the connection of M. de Feins:  but this man owed me nothing, and the former was under obligations to me, unless the follies I prevented him from committing were nothing more than affectation; which might very possibly be the case.