ing by
it henceforth! Good. [Stieler's _Deutschland_ (excellent Map in 25
Pieces), Piece 12.--Till is a mile or two northeast from Moyland;
Moyland about 5 or 6 southeast from Cleve.]

Mors--which is near the Town of Ruhrort, about midway between Wesel
and Dusseldorf--must be some forty miles from Moyland, forty-five from
Cleve; southward of both. So that the place, "A DEUX LIEUES DE CLEVES,"
is, even by Voltaire's showing, this Moyland; were there otherwise any
doubt upon it. "CHATEAU DE MEUSE"--hanging out a prospect of MORS
to us--is bad usage to readers. Of an intelligent man, not to say a
Trismegistus of men, one expects he will know in what town he is, after
three days' experience, as here. But he does not always; he hangs out a
mere "shadow of Mars by moonlight," till we learn better. Duvernet, his
Biographer, even calls it "SLEUS-MEUSE;" some wonderful idea of Sluices
and a River attached to it, in Duvernet's head! [Duvernet (2d FORM of
him,--that is, _Vie de Voltaire_ par T. J. D. V.), p. 117.]

WHAT VOLTAIRE THOUGHT OF THE INTERVIEW TWENTY YEARS AFTERWARDS

Of the Interview itself, with general bird's-eye view of the Visit
combined (in a very incorrect state), there is direct testimony by
Voltaire himself. Voltaire himself, twenty years after, in far other
humor, all jarred into angry sarcasm, for causes we shall see by and
by,--Voltaire, at the request of friends, writes down, as his Friedrich
Reminiscences, that scandalous VIE PRIVEE above spoken of, a most sad
Document; and this is the passage referring to "the little Place in
the neighborhood of Cleve," where Friedrich now waited for him: errors
corrected by our laborious Friend. After quoting something of that
Strasburg Doggerel, the whole of which is now too well known to us,
Voltaire proceeds:--

"From Strasburg he," King Friedrich, "went to see his Lower German
Provinces; he said he would come and see me incognito at Brussels. We
prepared a fine house for him,"--were ready to prepare such hired
house as we had for him, with many apologies for its slight degree
of perfection (ERROR FIRST),--"but having fallen ill in the little
Mansion-Royal of Meuse (CHATEAU DE MEUSE), a couple of leagues from
Cleve,"--fell ill at Wesel; and there is no Chateau de MEUSE in the
world (ERRORS 2d AND 3d),--"he wrote to me that he expected I would
make the advances. I went, accordingly, to present my profound homages.
Maupertuis, who already had his views, and was