pears that the critical judgment of La Harpe,
confirmed by D'Alembert, sided for _sceptrumque_ as better than _mox
sceptra_.

But the verse of Turgot was not alone in its testimony. There was an
incident precisely contemporaneous, which shows how completely France
had fallen under the fascination of the American cause. Voltaire, the
acknowledged chief of French literature in the brilliant eighteenth
century, after many years of busy exile at Ferney, in the neighborhood
of Geneva, where he had wielded his far-reaching sceptre, was induced,
in his old age, to visit Paris once again before he died. He left his
Swiss retreat on the sixth of February, 1778, the very day on which
Franklin signed the Alliance with France, and after a journey which
resembled the progress of a sovereign, he reached Paris on the twelfth
of February. He was at once surrounded by the homage of all that was
most illustrious in literature and science, while the theatre, grateful
for his contributions to the drama, vied with the Academy. But there
were two characters on whom the patriarch, as he was fondly called,
lavished a homage of his own. He had already addressed to Turgot a most
remarkable epistle in verse, the mood of which may be seen in its title,
"Epitre a un Homme"; but on seeing the discarded statesman, who had
been so true to benevolent ideas, he came forward to meet him, saying,
with his whole soul, "Let me kiss the hand which signed the salvation of
the people." The scene with Franklin was more touching still. Voltaire
began in English, which he had spoken early in life, but, having lost
the habit, he soon charted to French, saying that he "could not resist
the desire of speaking for one moment the language of Franklin." The
latter had brought with him his grandson, for whom he asked a
benediction. "God and Liberty," said Voltaire, putting his hands upon
the head of the child; "this is the only benediction proper for the
grandson of Franklin." A few days afterward, at a public session of the
Academy, they were placed side by side, when, amidst the applause of the
enlightened company, the two old men rose and embraced. The political
triumphs of Franklin and the dramatic triumphs of Voltaire caused the
exclamation, that "Solon embraced Sophocles." But it was more than this.
It was France embracing America, beneath the benediction of "God and
Liberty." Only a few days later, Voltaire died. But the alliance with
France had received a new as