eidel; his
sister had married the Duke of Courland, Jean Ernest Biron, or Birlen.
The baron, who was extremely pleasant, became my friend, and remained so
for the couple of months I spent in Berlin. I also met a Hamburg
merchant, named Greve, and his wife, whom he had just married and had
brought to Berlin that she might see the marvels of the Warrior-King's
Court. She was as pleasant as her husband, and I paid her an assiduous
court. A lively and high-spirited individual called Noel, who was the
sole and beloved cook of his Prussian Majesty, was the fourth person. He
only came rarely to the suppers on account of his duties in the king's
kitchen. As I have said, his majesty had only this one cook, and Noel had
only one scullion to help him.

M. Noel, the ambassador of the French Republic at the Hague, is, as I am
assured, the son of this cook, who was an excellent man. And here I must
say, in despite of my hatred for the French Revolutionary Government,
that I am not at all ill pleased that a man of talents should be enabled
to fill exalted offices, which under the old system of privilege were
often occupied by fools.

If it had not been for the culinary skill of Noel the cook, the famous
Atheist physician Lametrie would not have died of indigestion, for the
pie he succeeded in eating in his extremity was made by Noel.

Lametrie often supped with Madame Rufin and I thought it disobliging of
him to die so soon, for I should have liked to know him, as he was a
learned man and full of mirth. He expired laughing, though it is said
that death from indigestion is the most painful of all. Voltaire told me
that he thought Lametrie the most obstinate Atheist in the world, and I
could easily believe it after reading his works. The King of Prussia
himself pronounced his funeral oration, using the words, "It is not
wonderful that he only believed in the existence of matter, for all the
spirit in the world was enclosed in his own body. No one but a king would
venture on such a sally in a funeral oration. However, Frederick the
Great was a Deist and not an Atheist; but that is of little consequence,
since he never allowed the belief in a God to influence his actions in
the slightest degree. Some say that an Atheist who ponders over the
possible existence of a God is better than a Deist who never thinks of
the Deity, but I will not venture to decide this point."

The first visit I paid in Berlin was to Calsabigi, the younger brothe