M.Vernes bore the imputation with a moderation more thanastonishing in a man who was supposed not to have deserved it, andafter the fury with which he was seized on former occasions.Hewrote me two or three letters in very guarded terms with a view, as itappeared to me, to endeavor by my answers to discover how far I wascertain of his being the author of the paper, and whether or not I hadany proofs against him.I wrote him two short answers, severe in thesense, but politely expressed, and with which he was not displeased.
To this third letter, perceiving he wished to form with me a kind ofcorrespondence, I returned no answer, and he got D'Ivernois to speakto me.Madam Cramer wrote to Du Peyrou, telling him she was certainthe libel was not by Vernes.This however did not make me change myopinion.But as it was possible I might be deceived, and as it iscertain that if I were, I owed Vernes an explicit reparation, I senthim word by D'Ivernois that I would make him such a one as he shouldthink proper, provided he would name to me the real author of thelibel, or at least prove that he himself was not so.I went further:
feeling that, after all, were he not culpable, I had no right tocall upon him for proofs of any kind, I stated, in a memoir ofconsiderable length, the reasons whence I had inferred myconclusion, and determined to submit them to the judgment of anarbitrator, against whom Vernes could not except.But few people wouldguess the arbitrator of whom I made choice.I declared at the end ofthe memoir, that if, after having examined it, and made such inquiriesas should seem necessary, the council pronounced M.Vernes not to bethe author of the libel, from that moment I should be fullypersuaded he was not, and would immediately go and throw myself at hisfeet, and ask his pardon until I had obtained it.I can say with thegreatest truth that my ardent zeal for equity, the uprightness andgenerosity of my heart, and my confidence in the love of justiceinnate in every mind, never appeared more fully and perceptible thanin this wise and interesting memoir, in which I took, withouthesitating, my most implacable enemies for arbitrators between acalumniator and myself.I read to Du Peyrou what I had written: headvised me to suppress it, and I did so.He wished me to wait forthe proofs Vernes promised, and I am still waiting for them; hethought it best I should in the meantime be silent, and I held mytongue, and shall do so the rest of my life, censured as I am forhaving brought against Vernes a heavy imputation, false andunsupported by proof, although I am still fully persuaded, nay, asconvinced as I am of my existence, that he is the author of the libel.
My memoir is in the hands of Du Peyrou.Should it ever be published myreasons will be found in it, and the heart of Jean-Jacques, with whichmy contemporaries would not be acquainted, will I hope be known.
I have now to proceed to my catastrophe at Motiers, and to mydeparture from Val de Travers, after a residence of two years and ahalf, and an eight months suffering with unshaken constancy of themost unworthy treatment.It is impossible for me clearly torecollect the circumstances of this disagreeable period, but adetail of them will be found in a publication to that effect by DuPeyrou, of which I shall hereafter have occasion to speak.
After the departure of Madam de Verdelin the fermentation increased,and, notwithstanding the reiterated rescripts of the king, thefrequent orders of the council of state, and the cares of thechatelain and magistrates of the place, the people, seriouslyconsidering me as antichrist, and perceiving all their clamors to beof no effect, seemed at length determined to proceed to violence;stones were already thrown after me in the roads, but I was however ingeneral at too great a distance to receive any harm from them.Atlast, in the night of the fair of Motiers, which is in the beginningof September, I was attacked in my habitation in such a manner as toendanger the lives of everybody in the house.