duty, I have neither the intention nor the desire to turn him from his
project."

It was from myself that I must henceforth draw all my resources. I had
remarked that Brissot was addicted to the composition of romances and
pieces of poetry. I encouraged this passion, and every Sunday, above
all, when I knew that there would be a review, I went to fetch him, and
drew him into the country, in the environs of Paris. I listened then
complacently to the reading of those chapters of his romance which he
had composed during the week.

The first excursions frightened me a little, for armed with his pistols,
Brissot seized every occasion of showing his great skill; and I
reflected that this circumstance would lead to my being considered as
his accomplice, if he ever carried out his project. At last, his
pretensions to literary fame, which I flattered to the utmost, the hopes
(though I had none myself) which I led him to conceive of the success of
an attachment of which he had confided the secret to me, made him
receive with attention the reflections which I constantly made to him on
his enterprise. He determined on making a journey beyond the seas, and
thus relieved me from the most serious anxiety which I have experienced
in all my life.

Brissot died after having covered the walls of Paris with printed
handbills in favour of the Bourbon restoration.

I had scarcely entered the Observatory, when I became the
fellow-labourer of Biot in researches on the refraction of gases,
already commenced by Borda.