been shocked that I should quit the country. But how should I be treated if I were to return? Madame de Pompadour seemed, at the last, entirely estranged from me. Shall I renounce the favour and familiarity of one of the greatest kings on earth, of a man who will go down to posterity, to go and intrigue at a toilet for a word which I shall not obtain? to solicit Monsieur d'Argenson in my old age for permission to pass an occasional hour at the assemblies of the Academies of Science and of Inscriptions?"
And though Voltaire was still willing, even desirous, to return on fitting conditions, and begged Richelieu to use his good offices to that end, yet he evidently regarded complete expatriation as the alternative. So this remarkable alliance went on, of a king who, though not yet at the height of his fame as a general, had made himself a name among the great masters of war, and who governed his kingdom without ministers, and the illustrious foreigner whose conquests in other fields were still more eminent and assured. In this period Voltaire finished his 'Age of Louis XIV.,' corrected his "Maid," added to his "Essay on the Morals of Nations," and wrote the poem (similar in form and spirit to his "Discourse on Man" ) on the "Law of Nature." His plays were acted at Court, the highest personages taking parts along with the author; he was treated with the most friendly consideration by the princesses; and he might sup every night with the king, who really laid aside his royalty at these moments, liked to surround himself with men of intellect, and encouraged the freest conversation. "When the king," says Voltaire, "has governed all the morning, and governed single-handed, he is a philosopher for the rest of the day, and his suppers really are what the suppers of Paris are believed to be—they are always
