92 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN.

not to be alarmed. In fact, a moment afterwards, thedying man made us sit by his bedside. ' My friend,'said he to me, ' I am delighted to see you — especiallyat a time when I have a man with me whom you willbe glad to hear. It is M. de l’Ecluse, formerly sur-geon-dentist to the late king of Prussia, now possessorof an estate near Montargis ; he is a delightful man.Do you not know him ? ’ — ‘ The only M. de l’EcluseI know,’ I replied, e was an actor at the comic opera.’c That is he, my friend — the very man. If youknow him, you have heard him sing the song of theItemouleur, which he acted and sang so well.’ Andthen, with his bare arms and sepulchral voice, Voltaire began to imitate FEcluse. We laughed heartily ; buthe continued, seriously, — ‘I imitate him badly — youmust hear M. de l’Ecluse — it is truth itself — howdelighted you will be ! Go and see madame Denis . Illas I am, I shall rise to dine at table. The pleasure ofseeing you has suspended my sufferings, and I feelquite alive again.’

“ Madame Denis received us with that cordialitywhich is the charm of her character. She presentedM. de l’Ecluse to us, and at dinner Voltaire encouragedhim by the most flattering praises to give us the plea-sure of hearing him. We appeared charmed — needwas — for Voltaire would not have forgiven faint ap-plause. Our subsequent ramble in his garden was em-ployed in talking of Paris — the newspapers, thetheatres, the ‘ Encyclopedic, ’ and the unhappy ‘ Le Francde Pompignan,’ the butt of all his jests. His physi-cian, he said, having ordered him to hunt him everyday for two hours, he charged me to assure ourfriends that they should receive a fresh epigram everyday; and he was faithful to his promise. On ourreturn from our walk, he played at chess with M. Gau-lard, who respectfully allowed him to win ; then wetalked of the drama, and of the revolution in actingbrought about by Mile. Clairon. I exhausted all thelittle eloquence I possessed to inspire him with the