thinking of the paternal goodness, amiable virtues, and charming
philosophy of this respectable old man! I called him father, and he
called me son. These affectionate names give, in some measure, an idea
of the attachment by which we were united, but by no means that of the
want we felt of each other, nor of our continual desire to be together.
He would absolutely give me an apartment at the castle of Columbier, and
for a long time pressed me to take up my residence in that in which I
lodged during my visits. I at length told him I was more free and at my
ease in my own house, and that I had rather continue until the end of my
life to come and see him. He approved of my candor, and never afterwards
spoke to me on the subject. Oh, my good lord! Oh, my worthy father!
How is my heart still moved when I think of your goodness? Ah, barbarous
wretches! how deeply did they wound me when they deprived me of your
friendship? But no, great man, you are and ever will be the same for me,
who am still the same. You have been deceived, but you are not changed.
My lord marechal is not without faults; he is a man of wisdom, but he is
still a man. With the greatest penetration, the nicest discrimination,
and the most profound knowledge of men, he sometimes suffers himself to
be deceived, and never recovers his error. His temper is very singular
and foreign to his general turn of mind. He seems to forget the people
he sees every day, and thinks of them in a moment when they least expect
it; his attention seems ill-timed; his presents are dictated by caprice
and not by propriety. He gives or sends in an instant whatever comes
into his head, be the value of it ever so small. A young Genevese,
desirous of entering into the service of Prussia, made a personal
application to him; his lordship, instead of giving him a letter, gave
him a little bag of peas, which he desired him to carry to the king. On
receiving this singular recommendation his majesty gave a commission to
the bearer of it. These elevated geniuses have between themselves a
language which the vulgar will never understand. The whimsical manner of