We had just set about our music, when I received a letter from my father, informing me that my portmanteau had been seized and confiscated at Rousses, a French barrier on the side of Switzerland.

Alarmed at the news, I employed the acquaintance I had formed at Besancon, to learn the motive of this confiscation.

Being certain there was nothing contraband among my baggage, I could not conceive on what pretext it could have been seized on; at length, however, I learned the rights of the story, which (as it is a very curious one) must not be omitted.
I became acquainted at Chambery with a very worthy old man, from Lyons, named Monsieur Duvivier, who had been employed at the Visa, under the regency, and for want of other business, now assisted at the Survey.

He had lived in the polite world, possessed talents, was good-humored, and understood music.

As we both wrote in the same chamber, we preferred each other's acquaintance to that of the unlicked cubs that surrounded us.