7th September, 1773, the Princess sat
next to Voltaire, who always addressed her 'VOTRE ALTESSE.' At last the
Duchess said to him, 'TU ES ANON PAPA, JE SUIS TA FILLE, ET JE VOUZ ETRE
APPELEE TA FILLE.' Voltaire took a pencil from his pocket, asked for a
card, and wrote upon it:--

'Ah, le beau titre que voila!
Vous me donnez la premiere des places;
Quelle famille j'aurais la!
Je serais le pere des Graces'
[_OEuvres de Voltaire,_ xviii. 342.]

He gave the card to the Princess, who embraced and kissed him for it."
[Vehse, _Geschichte der Deutschen Hofe_ (Hamburg, 1853), xxv. 252, 253.]

VOLTAIRE TO FRIEDRICH (a fortnight after).

"FERNEY, 22d September, 1773.

"I must tell you that I have felt, in these late days, in spite of all
my past caprices, how much I am attached to your Majesty and to your
House. Madam the Duchess of Wurtemberg having had, like so many others,
the weakness to believe that health is to be found at Lausanne, and that
Dr. Tissot gives it if one pay him, has, as you know, made the journey
to Lausanne; and I, who am more veritably ill than she, and than all
the Princesses who have taken Tissot for an AEsculapius, had not the
strength to leave my home. Madam of Wurtemberg, apprised of all the
feelings that still live in me for the memory of Madam the Margravine
of Baireuth her Mother, has deigned to visit my hermitage, and pass two
days with us. I should have recognized her, even without warning; she
has the turn of her Mother's face with your eyes.

"You Hero-people who govern the world don't allow yourselves to be
subdued by feelings; you have them all the same as we, but you maintain
your decorum. We other petty mortals yield to all our impressions: I set
myself to cry, in speaking to her of you and of Madam the Princess her
Mother; and she too, though she is Niece of the first Captain in Europe,
could not restrain her tears. It appears to me, that she has the talent
(ESPRIT) and the graces of your House; and that especially she is more
attached to you than to her Husband [I should think so!]. She returns, I
believe, to Baireuth,--[No Mother, no Father there now: foolish Uncle
of Anspath died long ago, "3d August, 1757:" Aunt Dowager of Anspach
gone to Erlangen, I hope, to Feuchtwang, Schwabach or Schwaningen,
or some Widow's-Mansion "WITTWENSITZ" of her own; [Lived, finally at
Schwaningen, in sight of such vicissitudes and follies round her, till
"4th February, 1784"