(Rodenbeck, iii. 304).] reigning Son, with his
French-Actress equipments, being of questionable figure],--

--"returns, I believe, to Baireuth; where she will find another Princess
of a different sort; I mean Mademoiselle Clairon, who cultivates
Natural History, and is Lady Philosopher to Monseigneur the
Margraf,"--high-rouged Tragedy-Queen, rather tyrannous upon him, they
say: a young man destined to adorn Hammersmith by and by, and not go a
good road.

... "I renounce my beautiful hopes of seeing the Mahometans driven out
of Europe, and Athens become again the Seat of the Muses. Neither you
nor the Kaiser are"--are inclined in the Crusading way at all.... "The
old sick man of Ferney is always at the feet of your Majesty; he feels
very sorry that he cannot talk of you farther with Madam the Duchess of
Wurtemberg, who adores you.--LE VIEUX MALADE." [_OEuvres de Voltaire,_
xcii. 390.]

To which Friedrich makes answer: "If it is forevermore forbidden me to
see you again, I am not the less glad that the Duchess of Wurtemberg has
seen you. I should certainly have mixed my tears with yours, had I been
present at that touching scene! Be it weakness, be it excess of regard,
I have built for her lost Mother, what Cicero projected for his Tullia,
a TEMPLE OF FRIENDSHIP: her Statue occupies the background, and on each
pillar stands a mask (MASCARON) containing the Bust of some Hero in
Friendship: I send you the drawing of it." ["Potsdam, 24th October,
1773:" _OEuvres de Frederic,_ xxiii. 259:--"Temple" was built in 1768
(Ib. p. 259 n.).] Which again sets Voltaire weeping, and will the
Duchess when she sees it. [Voltaire's next Letter: _OEuvres de
Voltaire,_ xcii. 434.]

We said there hitherto was nearly nothing anywhere discoverable as
History of this high Lady but the dates only; these we now give. She was
"born 30th August, 1732,"--her Mother's and Father's one Child;--four
years older than her Anspach Cousin, who inherited Baireuth too, and
finished off that genealogy. She was "wedded 26th September, 1748;" her
age then about 16; her gloomy Duke of Wurtemberg, age 20, all sunshine
and goodness to her then: she was "divorced in 1757:" "died 6th April,
1780,"--Tradition says, "in great poverty [great for her rank,
I suppose, proud as she might be, and above complaining],--at
Neustadt-on-the-Aisch" (in the Nurnberg region), whither she had
retired, I know not how long after her Papa's death and Cousin's
accession. She is bo