[I doubt not but these circumstances are now differently related by M. Francueil and his consorts:  but I appeal to what he said of them at the time and long afterwards, to everybody he knew, until the forming of the conspiracy, and of which men of common sense and honor, must have preserved a remembrance.]

However austere my sumptuary reform might be, I did not at first extend it to my linen, which was fine and in great quantity, the remainder of my stock when at Venice, and to which I was particularly attached.  I had made it so much an object of cleanliness, that it became one of luxury, which was rather expensive.  Some persons, however, did me the favor to deliver me from this servitude.  On Christmas Eve, whilst the governesses were at vespers, and I was at the spiritual concert, the door of a garret, in which all our linen was hung up after being washed, was broken open.  Everything was stolen; and amongst other things, forty-two of my shirts, of very fine linen, and which were the principal part of my stock.  By the manner in which the neighbors described a man whom they had seen come out of the hotel with several parcels whilst we were all absent, Theresa and myself suspected her brother, whom we knew to be a worthless man.  The mother strongly endeavored to remove this suspicion, but so many circumstances concurred to prove it to be well founded, that, notwithstanding all she could say, our opinions remained still the same:  I dared not make a strict search for fear of finding more than I wished to do.  The brother never returned to the place where I lived, and, at length, was no more heard of by any of us.  I was much grieved Theresa and myself should be connected with such a family, and I exhorted her more than ever to shake off so dangerous a yoke.  This adventure cured me of my inclination for fine linen, and since that time all I have had has been very common, and more suitable to the rest of my dress.

Having thus completed the change of that which related to my person, all my cares tendered to render it solid and lasting, by striving to root out from my heart everything susceptible of receiving an impression from the judgment of men, or which, from the fear of blame, might turn me aside from anything good and reasonable in itself.  In consequence of the success of my work, my resolution made some noise in the world also, and procured me employment; so that I began my new profession with great appearance of success.  However, several causes prevented me from succeeding in it to the same degree I should under any other circumstances have done.  In the first place my ill state of health.  The attack I had just had, brought on consequences which prevented my ever being so well as I was before; and I am of opinion, the physicians, to whose care I intrusted myself, did me as much harm as my illness.  I was successively under the hands of Morand, Daran, Helvetius, Malouin, and Thyerri: