most infernal machinations. They doubtless found also that my spirits
smelt of heresy, for on the strength of this dreadful paper, they were
all seized, and from that time I never received any account of my
unfortunate portmanteau. The revenue officers whom I applied to for this
purpose required so many instructions, informations, certificates,
memorials, etc., etc., that, lost a thousand times in the perplexing
labyrinth, I was glad to abandon them entirely. I feel a real regret for
not having preserved this verbal process from the office of Rousses, for
it was a piece calculated to hold a distinguished rank in the collection
which is to accompany this Work.

The loss of my necessities immediately brought me back to Chambery,
without having learned anything of the Abbe Blanchard. Reasoning with
myself on the events of this journey, and seeing that misfortunes
attended all my enterprises, I resolved to attach myself entirely to
Madam de Warrens, to share her fortune, and distress myself no longer
about future events, which I could not regulate. She received me as if I
had brought back treasures, replaced by degrees my little wardrobe, and
though this misfortune fell heavy enough on us both, it was forgotten
almost as suddenly as it arrived.

Though this mischance had rather dampened my musical ardor, I did not
leave off studying my Rameau, and, by repeated efforts, was at length
able to understand it, and to make some little attempts at composition,
the success of which encouraged me to proceed. The Count de Bellegrade,
son of the Marquis of Antremont, had returned from Dresden after the
death of King Augustus. Having long resided at Paris, he was fond of
music, and particularly that of Rameau. His brother, the Count of
Nangis, played on the violin; the Countess la Tour, their sister, sung
tolerably: this rendered music the fashion at Chambery, and a kind of