ABSTRACT
Madame De Luxembourg, who had just retired, was waiting for Jean-Jacques Rousseau, not wishing to fall asleep before talking over with him the blow which had just been struck him by the Parlement. In point of fact, the Parlement of Paris was only too glad to have him get away. Jean-Jacques had guessed right in thinking that his condemnation was nothing more than a move against the Jesuits, to silence good churchmen. The County of Neuchatel belonged at the time to the King of Prussia, a circumstance which considerably complicated the situation of the unhappy refugee, hitherto the outspoken opponent of that monarch. Jean-Jacques must have felt a thrill of satisfaction as he signed his letter, intended to show the world how the author of a work like the Contrat social expresses himself in writing to the representative of one of those monarchies of which he has foretold the impending fall.
