At supper the prince mentioned the confinement of Diderot.
The baron, to hear what I had to say, accused the prisoner of imprudence; and I showed not a little of the same in the impetuous manner in which I defended him.

This excess of zeal, inspired by the misfortune which had befallen my friend, was pardoned, and the conversation immediately changed.

There were present two Germans in the service of the prince.
M.Klupssel, a man of great wit, his chaplain, and who afterwards, having supplanted the baron, became his governor.

The other was a young man named M.Grimm, who served him as a reader until he could obtain some place, and whose indifferent appearance sufficiently proved the pressing necessity he was under of immediately finding one.

From this very evening Klupssel and I began an acquaintance which soon led to friendship.