aturally
in great request. To-day, after many hours of negotiation with the
Spanish minister, in came M. Dubourg, the most distinguished physician
in Europe.

"'_Mon chere maitre_,' he said. 'I have a most difficult case and as
you know more about the human body than any man of my acquaintance I
wish to confer with you.'

"Yesterday, Doctor Ingenhauz, physician to the Emperor of Austria, came
to consult him regarding the vaccination of the royal family of France.

"In the evening, M. Robespierre, a slim, dark-skinned, studious young
attorney from Arras, wearing gold-rimmed spectacles, came for
information regarding lightning rods, he having doubts of their
legality. While they were talking, M. Joseph Ignace Guillotin, another
physician, arrived. He was looking for advice regarding a proposed new
method of capital punishment, and wished to know if, in the Doctor's
opinion, a painless death could be produced by quickly severing the
head from the body. Next morning, M. Jourdan, with hair and beard as
red as the flank of my bay mare and a loud voice, came soon after
breakfast, to sell us mules by the ship load.

"So you see that even I, living in his home and seeing him almost every
hour of the day, have little chance to talk with him. Last night we
met M. Voltaire--dramatist and historian--now in the evening of his
days. We were at the Academy, where we had gone to hear an essay by
D'Alembert. Franklin and Voltaire--a very thin old gentleman of
eighty-four, with piercing black eyes--sat side by side on the
platform. The audience demanded that the two great men should come
forward and salute each other. They arose and advanced and shook hands.

"'_A la Francaise_,' the crowd demanded.

"So the two white-haired men embraced and kissed each other amidst loud
applause.

"We are up at sunrise and at breakfast, for half an hour or so, I have
him to myself. Then we take a little walk in the palace grounds of M.
le Ray de Chaumont, Chief Forester of the kingdom, which adjoins us.
To the Count's generosity Franklin is indebted for the house we live
in. The Doctor loves to have me with him in the early morning. He
says breakfasting alone is the most _triste_ of all occupations.

"'I think that the words of Demosthenes could not have been more sought
than yours,' I said to him at breakfast this morning.

"He laughed as he answered: 'Demosthenes said that the first point in
speaking was action. Probably he mea