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the subject of all tongues and all pens, should emergefrom his seclusion among the Alps, and, in his eighty-fifth year, come to take his part in society, and gatherthe applause of a theatrical audience, excited, nearly tofrenzy, the curiosity, the admiration, and interest ofevery inhabitant of Paris .
Condorcet , who witnessed his arrival, in his “ Lifeof Voltaire,” madame du Deffand , in her “ Letters toHorace Walpole, ” and Grimm, in his “ Literary Cor-respondence,” give a vivid picture of this last triumph-ant but fatal visit to Paris . He arrived in good health;though his first note to madame du Deffand said, “ Iarrive, dying; and only wish to revive to throw myselfat your feet.” He received all his friends with cordial-ity and gaiety, and delighted them with the charm thatbelonged to his manners. All Paris pressed to see him;his apartment was never empty : he received more than300 persons, one after the other, and had somethingwitty and agreeable to say to all. Meanwhile, as hewas in reality afflicted by a weakening and very painfuldisease, his more familiar friends began to tremble forthe result of this new and exciting scene. “ I paidhim my second visit yesterday,” writes madame duDeffand , “ on the 22(1 of February. It was not soagreeable as the first. We were received by his niece,who is certainly the best woman in the world, but themost tiresome; by M. de Villette, who is the dullestman, and his young wife, who, they say, is amiable, andgoes by the name of Belle et Bonne with Voltaire andhis friends. We did not find him in the drawing-room ; he was shut up with his secretary, and beggedme to wait. His friends told me that he was over-whelmed with fatigue; that he had read the whole ofhis tragedy that afternoon to the actors, and had madethem rehearse, and was so exhausted that he couldscarcely speak. I wished to go away; but they de-tained me, and Voltaire sent me four lines he hadmade on his statute by Pigal, to engage me to remain.After a good quarter of an hour he came in. He saidh 4