68 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN.

in his hand; on entering the room, he threw it intothe fire, saying, “ There, sire, is the only remainingcopy of that unhappy hook which caused me to loseyour friendship.” The king, in his German simplicity,fancied that the poet spoke the simple truth ; he rushedto the fire to save the pamphletfrom among the burningfagots. Voltaire struggled to poke it in. Frederic atlength drew out the half-burnt pages in triumph. Heembraced his friend. They supped together. “ A sup-per of Damocles,” Voltaire calls it; but to the king itwas one of triumph, since it appeared to he the sign thathe had bent Voltaire ’s spirit to pass over the indig-nities heaped on him, and secured him as a submissivecourtier for ever. As a token of his renewed ser-vitude, he gave him back “ the baubles.” Maupertuis ,himself, was not spared by the friends, who, as far aswit could go, sacrificed him at the shrine of their re-conciliation. Voltaire , however, had but one end inview. He used his regained influence to obtain per-mission for a journey to Plombieres, promising to beabsent only a few months — a promise he did not meanto keep. But as Francis I. broke the treaty whichCharles V. forced him to make in prison in Madrid , somight Voltaire consider any promise he made toFrederic void, while the frontiers of Prussia wereguarded by an hundred and fifty thousand men, and in-dependence had become necessary to his existence.

Voltaire exulted in escaping from the palace ofAlcina — as he named the abode of Frederic ; but hedid not think it prudent to venture to Paris , where hisenemies were in vigour, and strengthened by the displea-sure with which Louis XV . regarded the poet’s havingexchanged his court for that of Frederic. Instead,therefore, of taking refuge in his own country (if thesubject of an arbitrary monarch can be said to have acountry), he remained some time at Leipsic. Here hereceived a ridiculous challenge from Maupertuis , whichonly tended to add zest to his pleasantries upon him;and he then proceeded to the court of the duchess of