only, after more and more inspection, that
the incident is true; and with labor date it, summer of the Year
1725. Treaty of Utrecht itself, though all the Newspapers and Own
Correspondents were so interested in it, was perhaps but a foolish
matter to date in comparison!

"About a week after, M. Arouet Junior was again dining with the Duc
de Sulli, and a fine company as before. A servant whispers him, That
somebody has called, and wants him below. 'Cannot come,' answers Arouet;
'how can I, so engaged?' Servant returns after a minute or two: 'Pardon,
Monsieur; I am to say, it is to do an act of beneficence that you are
wanted below!' Arouet lays down his knife and fork; descends instantly
to see what act it is. A carriage is in the court, and hackney-coach
near it: 'Would Monsieur have the extreme goodness to come to the door
of the carriage, in a case of necessity?' At the door of the carriage,
hands seize the collar of him, hold him as in a vice; diabolic visage
of Duc de Rohan is visible inside, who utters, looking to the
hackney-coach, some "VOILA, Now then!" Whereupon the hackney-coach
opens, gives out three porters, or hired bullies, with the due
implements: scandalous actuality of horsewhipping descends on the back
of poor Arouet, who shrieks and execrates to no purpose, nobody being
near. 'That will do,' says Rohan at last, and the gallant ducal party
drive off; young Arouet, with torn frills and deranged hair, rushing up
stairs again, in such a mood as is easy to fancy. Everybody is sorry,
inconsolable, everybody shocked; nobody volunteers to help in avenging.
'Monseigneur de Sulli, is not such atrocity done to one of your
guests, an insult to yourself?' asks Arouet. 'Well, yes perhaps,
but'--Monseigneur de Sulli shrugs his shoulders, and proposes nothing.
Arouet withdrew, of course in a most blazing condition, to consider what
he could, on his own strength, do in this conjuncture.

"His Biographer Duvernet says, he decided on doing two things: learning
English and the small-sword exercise. [_La Vie de Voltaire,_ par M--(a
Geneve, 1786), pp. 55-57; or pp. 60-63, in his SECOND form of the Book.
The "M--" is an Abbe Duvernet; of no great mark otherwise. He got
into Revolution trouble afterwards, but escaped with his head; and
republished his Book, swollen out somewhat by new "Anecdotes" and
republican bluster, in this second instance; signing himself T. J. D.
V--(Paris, 1797). A vague but not dark or mendacious l