As long as I was strong enough, I held my own.

Deprived of all support, even that of the king and the queen, who dared no longer defend me, I retired, deploring the unhappy condition of France.

Now I have other cares; I return to my interrupted studies and to my children, the props of my old age and my sweetest delight.

I cultivate my fields.

The estate of Vignay seems to me a little kingdom, if any man may consider himself master of anything here below.