This last failure of success completed my discouragement, Iabandoned every prospect of fame and advancement; and, without further troubling my head about real or imaginary talents, with which I had so little success, I dedicated my whole time and cares to procure myself and Theresa a subsistence in the manner most pleasing to those to whom it should be agreeable to provide for it.I therefore entirely attached myself to Madam Dupin and M.de Francueil.This did not place me in a very opulent situation; for with eight or nine hundred livres, which I had the first two years, I had scarcely enough to provide for my primary wants; being obliged to live in their neighborhood, a dear part of the town, in a furnished lodging, and having to pay for another lodging at the extremity of Paris, at the very top of the Rue Saint-Jacques, to which, let the weather be as it would, I went almost every evening to supper.I soon got into the track of my new occupations, and conceived a taste for them.Iattached myself to the study of chemistry, and attended several courses of it with M.de Francueil at M.Rouelle's, and we began to scribble over paper upon that science, of which we scarcely possessed the elements.In 1747, we went to pass the autumn in Touraine, at the castle of Chenonceaux, a royal mansion upon the Cher, built by Henry the II., for Diana of Poitiers, of whom the ciphers are still seen, and which is now in the possession of M.Dupin, a farmer-general.We amused ourselves very agreeably in this beautiful place, and lived very well: I became as fat there as a monk.Music was a favorite relaxation.I composed several trios full of harmony, and of which I may perhaps speak in my supplement if ever I should write one.Theatrical performances were another resource.I wrote a comedy in fifteen days, entitled l'Engagement temeraire,* which will be found amongst my papers; it has no other merit than that of being lively.
I composed several other little things: amongst others a poem entitled, l'Allee de Sylvie,*(2) from the name of an alley in the park upon the bank of the Cher; and this without discontinuing my chemical studies, or interrupting what I had to do for Madam Dupin.
* The Rash Engagement.
*(2) The Alley of Sylvia.
Whilst I was increasing my corpulency at Chenonceaux, that of my poor Theresa was augmented at Paris in another manner, and at my return I found the work I had put upon the frame in greater forwardness than I had expected.This, on account of my situation, would have thrown me into the greatest embarrassment, had not one of my messmates furnished me with the only resource which could relieve me from it.This is one of those essential narratives which I cannot give with too much simplicity; because, in making an improper use of their names, I should either excuse or inculpate myself, both of which in this place are entirely out of the question.
