My very bowels yearned at the sight of this odious piece: the reading of it was insupportable to me, and, without going through the whole, I returned the copy to Duchesne with the following letter:
MONTMORENCY, 21st May, 1760.
"In casting my eye over the piece you sent me, I trembled at seeing myself well spoken of in it.I do not accept the horrid present.I am persuaded that in sending it me, you did not intend an insult; but you do not know, or have forgotten, that I have the honor to be the friend of a respectable man, who is shamefully defamed and calumniated in this libel."Duchesne showed the letter.Diderot, upon whom it ought to have had an effect quite contrary, was vexed at it.His pride could not forgive me the superiority of a generous action, and I was informed his wife everywhere inveighed against me with a bitterness with which I was not in the least affected, as I knew she was known to everybody to be a noisy babbler.
Diderot in his turn found an avenger in the Abbe Morrellet, who wrote against Palissot a little work, imitated from the Petit prophete, and entitled the Vision.In this production he very imprudently offended Madam de Robeck, whose friends got him sent to the Bastile; though she, not naturally vindictive, and at that time in a dying state, I am certain had nothing to do in the affair.
D'Alembert, who was very intimately connected with Morrellet, wrote me a letter, desiring I would beg of Madam de Luxembourg to solicit his liberty, promising her in return encomiums in the Encyclopedie; my answer to his letter was as follows:
"I did not wait the receipt of your letter before I expressed to Madam de Luxembourg the pain the confinement of the Abbe Morrellet gave me.She knows my concern, and shall be made acquainted with yours, and her knowing that the abbe is a man of merit will be sufficient to make her interest herself in his behalf.However, although she and the marechal honor me with a benevolence which is my greatest consolation, and that the name of your friend be to them a recommendation in favor of the Abbe Morrellet, I know not how far, on this occasion, it may be proper for them to employ the credit attached to the rank they hold, and the consideration due to their persons.I am not even convinced that the vengeance in question relates to the Princess of Robeck so much as you seem to imagine;and were this even the case, we must not suppose that the pleasure of vengeance belongs to philosophers exclusively, and that when they choose to become women, women will become philosophers.
"I will communicate to you whatever Madam de Luxembourg may say to me after having shown her your letter.In the meantime, I think I know her well enough to assure you that, should she have the pleasure of contributing to the enlargement of the Abbe Morrellet, she will not accept the tribute of acknowledgment you promise her in the Encyclopedie, although she might think herself honored by it, because she does not do good in the expectation of praise, but from the dictates of her heart."I made every effort to excite the zeal and commiseration of Madame de Luxembourg in favor of the poor captive, and succeeded to my wishes.She went to Versailles on purpose to speak to M.de St.
Florentin, and this journey shortened the residence at Montmorency, which the marechal was obliged to quit at the same time to go to Rouen, whither the king sent him as governor of Normandy, on account of the motions of the parliament, which government wished to keep within bounds.Madame de Luxembourg wrote me the following letter the day after her departure (Packet D, No.23):
VERSAILLES, Wednesday.
"M.de Luxembourg set off yesterday morning at six o'clock.I do not yet know that I shall follow him.I wait until he writes to me, as he is not yet certain of the stay it will be necessary for him to make.I have seen M.de St.Florentin, who is as favorably disposed as possible towards the Abbe Morrellet; but he finds some obstacles to his wishes, which, however, he is in hopes of removing the first time he has to do business with the king, which will be next week.Ihave also desired as a favor that he might not be exiled, because this was intended; he was to be sent to Nancy.This, sir, is what I have been able to obtain; but I promise you I will not let M.de St.
Florentin rest until the affair is terminated in the manner you desire.Let me now express to you how sorry I am on account of my being obliged to leave you so soon, of which I flatter myself you have not the least doubt.I love you with all my heart, and shall do so for my whole life."A few days afterwards I received the following note from D'Alembert, which gave me real joy.(Packet D, No.26.)August 1st.
"Thanks to your cares, my, dear philosopher, the abbe has left the Bastile, and his imprisonment will have no other consequence.He is setting off for the country, and, as well as myself, returns you a thousand thanks and compliments.Vale et me ama."The abbe also wrote to me a few days afterwards a letter of thanks, which did not, in my opinion, seem to breathe a certain effusion of the heart, and in which he seemed in some measure to extenuate the service I had rendered him.Some time afterwards, Ifound that he and D'Alembert had, to a certain degree, I will not say supplanted, but succeeded me in the good graces of Madam de Luxembourg, and that I had lost in them all they had gained.
However, I am far from suspecting the Abbe Morrellet of having contributed to my disgrace; I have too much esteem for him to harbor any such suspicion.With respect to D'Alembert, I shall at present leave him out of the question, and hereafter say of him what may seem necessary.
I had, at the same time, another affair which occasioned the last letter I wrote to Voltaire; a letter against which he vehemently exclaimed, as an abominable insult, although he never showed it to any person.I will here supply the want of that which he refused to do.