ep from reproaching ourselves. Both my
sons, however, most generously diverted this feeling from me, and we
supported each other mutually by the recollection of my father.

A few days afterwards the prefect of Geneva wrote me a second
letter, to require me, in the name of the minister of police, to
deliver up the proof sheets of my book which were still in my hands;
the minister knew exactly the number I had sent and kept, and his
spies had done their duty well. In my answer, I gave him the
satisfaction of admitting that he had been correctly informed; but I
told him at the same time that this copy was not in Switzerland, and
that I neither could nor would give it up. I added, however, that I
would engage never to have it printed on the Continent, and I had no
great merit in making this promise, for what Continental government
would then have suffered the publication of any book forbidden, by
the emperor?

A short time afterwards, the prefect of Geneva* was dismissed, and
it was generally believed on my account; he was one of my friends,
yet he had not deviated one iota from the orders he had received:
although he was one of the most honorable and enlightened men in
France, his principles led him to the scrupulous obedience of the
government, whose servant he was; but no ambitious view, or personal
calculation gave him the zeal required. It was another great source
of chagrin to be, or to be regarded as being, the cause of the
dismissal of such a man. He was generally regretted in his
department, and from the moment it was believed that I was the cause
of his disgrace, all who had any pretensions to places avoided my
house as they would the most fatal contagion. There still remained
to me, however at Geneva, more friends than any other provincial
town in France could have offered me; for the inheritance of liberty
has left in that city much generous feeling; but it is impossible to
have an idea of the anxiety one feels, when one is afraid of
compromising those who come to visit you. I made a point of getting
the most exact information of all the relations of any lady before I
invited her; for if she had only a cousin who wanted a place, or had
one, it was demanding an act of Roman heroism to expect her to come
and dine with me; At last, in the month of March 1811, a new prefect
arrived from Paris. He was a man admirably well adapted to the
reigning system: that is to say, having a very general acquaintance
with facts