276 THE FRIEND OF VOLTAIRE. King Frederick of Prussia was in camp, at the head of 50,000 men, when he heard that his old friend and correspondent, Voltaire, was dead. He immediately ordered a special service to be performed for the patriarch of philosophers in the Roman Catholic Church at Berlin, declaring that, had Voltaire been an old Greek, he would have been worshipped as a god! Frederick laid aside his sword for the moment, took up his pen, and wrote his "Eloge de Voltaire." The Archbishop of Paris forbade the French Academy to perform a funeral service in honour of Voltaire. The French Academy was compelled to submit; but, in revenge, it declared that no further service should be performed for an Academician (at the Grey Friars), until reparation was done to the memory of Voltaire. The Church thus defeated herself in this decree; and King Frederick the heretic gained much popular enthusiasm by his conduct in contrast to it. The Marquis de Villette had secured Voltaire's heart. At the château of the Marquis, near Ferney, he built a temple for the reception of the urn containing that heart. The inside walls of this temple were hung with portraits of celebrated con THE HEART OF VOLTAIRE. 277 temporaries of Voltaire. The Marquis de Villette offered Madame de Genlis to hang her portrait there, saying that he "had reserved a place for her in the heart of Voltaire."* It was now time, however, for Madame de Genlis, who had been accused by the Princesse de Lamballe of having the "heart of a wolf," to show the "face of a lamb." She was shocked that she, the gouvernante of young Christian princes, should have such an offer made to her, or that the Marquis de Villette should presume so to address her! ... • "I made an answer," says she, "full of modesty, in which I acknowledged, humbly, that I had no right which could make me pretend to that favour. I have never been able to conceive how M. de Villette could make such a proposal to a person whose principles were already so well known... It is true," she adds with characteristic egotism, "that I had not then published my 'Adèle and Théodore;' but the 'Théâtre d'Education,' complete, had made my opinions and religious principles sufficiently known.” Had not the pen of Voltaire done its work, the Marquis de Villette would not have been able to * Still in the possession of the heirs of de Villette. 278 CREED AND CORPORATION. enshrine Voltaire's heart. Until Voltaire wrote, and even long after his name was famous, the people had been restrained in every action by a double bridle. Creed and Corporation had been the great engines of police; the people, now, were prepared to defy doth religious and municipal authority. In the first half of the 18th century, when Voltaire appeared, there was danger in exposing old abuses. "Where it might entail banishment, worldly ruin, and even death, to speak a free word of criticism upon the doctrines or the hierophants of the dominant church, it was not merely a very excusable but a very necessary and praiseworthy deed to expose the folly and inconsistency of some of the teachers. Gessler may wear his hat any fashion he chooses, and only ill-breeding would laugh at him so long as he does not insist upon any one performing an act of homage to his humour. But when he sets his beaver upon a pole in the centre of the market-place, and orders imprisonment or exile to every subject who will not fall down and worship it, that man does a brave and a wise act who sets the world laughing at the tyrant and his preposterous arrogance." CHAPTER VI. Lord North's Budget of February, 1778-Secret Intelligence from France-Lord North confounded-The duke of Grafton and Lord Weymouth-Ministerial evasions— Parliamentary accusations-The royal message-Declaration of France-Proposal to conciliate France-Lord Chatham-Letter of George III. to Lord North-Lord Chatham's last opposition-The Duke of Richmond— The King of Terrors in the House of Lords-Robbing Peter to pay Paul-Lord Chatham's burial-Voltaire's apotheosis-Freemason's fête in Paris--Louis XVI. and Dr. Franklin-Queen Marie Antoinette enceinte—The Chevalier d'Éon-Diplomatic Mystery in the Chapel of Versailles-True but strange story of the Chevalier d'Éon-The Chevalier d'Éon's letter to the MinistryMutual insults of the French and English press-The "Reverend Mr. Cole"-Politics and Parties at Cambridge -Roman Catholics in England and France change sides -King Frederick of Prussia; neutrality-Voltaire's last Prophecy concerning England and France-The Pope and Voltaire's Bible Commentary-Horace Wal 280 POLITICAL EVENTS. pole on Politics Universal-Necker's Reforms in France -La Reine s'amuse-Address of the people of Paris to "Our Brothers of Boston "-The Empress Catherine of Russia-French ships manned, and French soldiers armed-Lord Carlisle and M. de Lafayette-Friendship between Lafayette and Washington-Severe Discipline in the American Army-French description of George Washington-Lafayette wounded-Letter of Lafayette to the Duc d'Argens-American impatience-Rumours from the New World in the Old World-George Washington's wife-Letter of Lafayette to George Washington-Letter of Lafayette, from America, to his wife in France. DURING all this time (from February to May, 1778), whilst Voltaire was being worshipped, converted, crowned, and excommunicated, and the French Government was silently, but actively, preparing troops, ships, and arms, to send out to America, the course of political events was more strongly marked, outwardly, in England than in France. The treaties of alliance with America, it will be remembered, had been signed at Versailles on the 3rd and 6th of February, 1778. On the 19th of that month Lord North rose in the House of Commons to move a conciliatory budget. He proposed: "1st, To repeal the tea duty abso |