herefore yielded to
their solicitations, and this with but little pain, for the hatred of the
people so afflicted my heart that I was no longer able to support it.

I had a choice of places to retire to. After Madam de Verdelin returned
to Paris, she had, in several letters, mentioned a Mr. Walpole, whom she
called my lord, who, having a strong desire to serve me, proposed to me
an asylum at one of his country houses, of the situation of which she
gave me the most agreeable description; entering, relative to lodging and
subsistence, into a detail which proved she and Lord Walpole had held
particular consultations upon the project. My lord marshal had always
advised me to go to England or Scotland, and in case of my determining
upon the latter, offered me there an asylum. But he offered me another
at Potsdam, near to his person, and which tempted me more than all the
rest.

He had just communicated to me what the king had said to him about my
going there, which was a kind of invitation to me from that monarch, and
the Duchess of Saxe-Gotha depended so much upon my taking the journey
that she wrote to me desiring I should go to see her in my way to the
court of Prussia, and stay some time before I proceeded farther; but I
was so attached to Switzerland that I could not resolve to quit it so
long as it was possible for me to live there, and I seized this
opportunity to execute a project of which I had for several months
conceived the idea, and of which I have deferred speaking, that I might
not interrupt my narrative.

This project consisted in going to reside in the island of St. Peter,
an estate belonging to the Hospital of Berne, in the middle of the lake
of Bienne. In a pedestrian pilgrimage I had made the preceding year with
Du Peyrou we had visited this isle, with which I was so much delighted
that I had since that time incessantly thought of the means of making it
my place of residence. The greatest obstacle to my wishes arose from the
property of the island being vested in the people of Berne, who three
years before had driven me from amongst them; and besides the
mortification of returning to live with people who had given me so
unfavorable a reception, I had reason to fear they would leave me no more
at peace in the island than they had done at Yverdon. I had consulted
the lord marshal upon the subject, who thinking as I did, that the people
of Berne would be glad to see me banished to the island, and to