receipt of the present lines you will embark in the first ship that fails from Marseilles to Spain. It will be useless for you to waste time in writing to me for farther eclaircissements, as I deem it inconsistent with the regard I ever entertained for your house and yourself, to give them. All I can now tell you, is, that you are supposed to be dead in your own country, and that to remove this conjecture, so unfavorable to your affairs, it will be best to show yourself there among your friends and the living.
"I am, with due respect yours, &c."
Our Ambassador, who was then at the court of Versailles, was a distant relation of my mother's, and a great well-wisher to our family in general. I had therefore no reason to hesitate in complying with his requisition, and speeding immediately to Marseilles, found a ship ready to set fail to Cadiz the next day, the wind being just then very steady and favorable. Having settled for my passage, I went on board early the next morning, and
