letter I was accused of having exposed my children in the streets,
of taking about with me a soldier's trull, of being worn out with
debaucheries..., and other fine things of a like nature. It was not
difficult for me to discover the author. My first idea on reading this
libel, was to reduce to its real value everything the world calls fame
and reputation amongst men; seeing thus a man who was never in a brothel
in his life, and whose greatest defect was in being as timid and shy as a
virgin, treated as a frequenter of places of that description; and in
finding myself charged with being......, I, who not only never had the
least taint of such disorder, but, according to the faculty, was so
constructed as to make it almost impossible for me to contract it.
Everything well considered, I thought I could not better refute this
libel than by having it printed in the city in which I longest resided,
and with this intention I sent it to Duchesne to print it as it was with
an advertisement in which I named M. Vernes and a few short notes by way
of eclaircissement. Not satisfied with printing it only, I sent copies
to several persons, and amongst others one copy to the Prince Louis of
Wirtemberg, who had made me polite advances and with whom I was in
correspondence. The prince, Du Peyrou, and others, seemed to have their
doubts about the author of the libel, and blamed me for having named
Vernes upon so slight a foundation. Their remarks produced in me some
scruples, and I wrote to Duchesne to suppress the paper. Guy wrote to me
he had suppressed it: this may or may not be the case; I have been
deceived on so many occasions that there would be nothing extraordinary
in my being so on this, and from the time of which I speak, was so
enveloped in profound darkness that it was impossible for me to come at
any kind of truth.

M. Vernes bore the imputation with a moderation more than astonishing in
a man who was supposed not to have deserved it, and after the fury with
which he was seized on former occasions. He wrote me two or three
letters in very guarded terms, with a view, as it appeared to me,
to endeavor by my answers to discover how far I was certain of his being
the author of the paper, and whether or not I had any proofs against him.
I wrote him two short answers, severe in the sense, but politely
expressed, and with which he was not displeased. To his third letter,
perceiving he wished to form with me a kind of corre