only to my Niece.
I" (a page more of this)--have my sorrows and merits, and absolutely
no silence at all! [--OEuvres de Frederic,--xxii. 289.] "In the gift of
Speech he is the most brilliant of mankind," said Smelfungus; but in the
gift of Silence what a deficiency! Friedrich will have to do that for
Two, it would seem.

BERLIN, 28th DECEMBER, 1751: LOUIS QUATORZE; AND DEATH OF
ROTHENBURG.--"Our LOUIS QUATORZE is out. But, Heavens, see, your
Majesty: a Pirate Printer, at Frankfurt-on-Oder, has been going on
parallel with us, all the while; and here is his foul blotch of an
Edition on sale, too! Bielfeld," fantastic fellow, "had proof-sheets;
Bielfeld sent them to a Professor there, though I don't blame Bielfeld:
result too evident. Protect me, your Majesty; Order all wagons,
especially wagons for Leipzig, to be stopped, to be searched, and the
Books thrown out,--it costs you but a word!"

Quite a simple thing: "All Prussia to the rescue!" thinks an ardent
Proprietor of these Proof-sheets. But then, next day, hears that
Rothenburg is dead. That the silent Rothenburg lay dying, while the
vocal Voltaire was writing these fooleries, to a King sunk in grief.
"Repent, be sorry, be ashamed!" he says to himself; and does instantly
try;--but with little success; Frankfurt-on-Oder, with its Bielfeld
proof-sheets, still jangling along, contemptibly audible, for some time.
[Ib. 285-287.] And afterwards, from Frankfurt-on-Mayn new sorrow rises
on LOUIS QUATORZE, as will be seen.--Friedrich's grief for Rothenburg
was deep and severe; "he had visited him that last night," say the
Books; "and quitted his bedside, silent, and all in tears." It is mainly
what of Biography the silent Rothenburg now has.

From the current Narratives, as they are called, readers will recollect,
out of this Voltaire Period, two small particles of Event amid such an
ocean of noisy froth,--two and hardly more: that of the "Orange-Skin,"
and that of the "Dirty Linen." Let us put these two on their basis; and
pass on:--

THE ORANGE-SKIN (Potsdam, 2d September, 1751, to Niece Denis)--Good
Heavens, MON ENFANT, what is this I hear (through the great
Dionysius' Ear I maintain, at such expense to myself)!... "La Mettrie,
a man of no consequence, who talks familiarly with the King after their
reading; and with me too, now and then: La Mettrie swore to me, that,
speaking to the King, one of those days, of my supposed favor, and the
bit of jealousy it excites, the