ussia, which
my king so earnestly desires and--"

"Unhappily," said the king, interrupting him eagerly, "the distinguished
Frenchmen who have become my allies, are exactly those whom their
strong-minded, fanatical mother, La France, has cast out from her bosom
as dishonored sons. Voltaire lives in Ferney. Jean Jacques Rousseau,
whom I admire but do not love, lives in Geneva, where he has been
obliged to take refuge. I have also been told that the pension which, in
a favorable moment, was granted to D'Alembert, has been withdrawn.
Have I been falsely informed? has my friend D'Alembert not fallen
into disgrace? is not my friend the encyclopaedian, regarded as a
transgressor, and a high traitor because he uses the undoubted right of
free thought, does not blindly believe, but looks abroad with open eyes
and a clear intellect?"

The duke replied by a few confused and disconnected words, and a shadow
fell upon his clear countenance; three times had Frederick interrupted
him when he sought to speak of the King of France and his friendship for
his brother of Prussia. The duke did not dare choose this theme for the
fourth time, which was so evidently distasteful to the king; he must,
therefore, submit and follow the lead of his majesty, and in lieu of
alliances and state questions discuss philosophy and the arts. So soon
as the duke came to this conclusion, he smoothed his brow, and, with all
his amiability, animation, and intelligence, he replied to the questions
of the king, and the conversation was carried on in an unbroken stream
of wit and gayety.

"At the next audience I will surely find an opportunity to speak of
politics," said the duke to himself. "The king cannot always be an
immovable as to-day."

But the second and the third audience came, and the king was as
inexplicable as the first time; he conversed with the duke kindly and
freely showed him the most marked attention and personal confidence; but
so often as the duke sought to introduce the subject of politics and the
public interests which had brought him to Berlin, the king interrupted
him and led the conversation to indifferent subjects. This lasted two
weeks, and the French court looked with painful anxiety for intelligence
from the Duke de Nivernois that the old alliance was renewed and fully
ratified, and she had, therefore, nothing to fear from Prussia. This
uncertainty was no longer to be borne, and the duke determined to end it
by a coup d'etat.