et"
nearly contemporaneous). "At last, then, I think my Russians must be
near Great Glogau [might have been, one thinks, after such a Kunersdorf;
did not start for a month yet; never could get very near at all]. Who
would have thought that Barberina [Mackenzie's Dancer once; sent to
Glogau, Cocceji and she, when their marriage became public] was going to
be besieged by the Russians, and in Glogau: O Destiny!--

"I don't love Luc, far from it: I never will pardon him his infamous
procedure with my Niece [at Frankfurt that time]; nor the face he has to
write me flattering things twice a month; without having ever repaired
his wrongs. I desire much his entire humiliation, the chastisement of
the sinner; whether his eternal damnation. I don't quite know." [Ib.
lxxviii. 195 ("19th August, 1759").] (Hear, hear!)

TO THE SAME (a month after MAXEN: "Peace" Negotiation very lively). ...
"Meanwhile, if Luc could be punished before this happy Peace! If, by
this last stroke of General Beck [tussle with Dierecke at Meissen, 4th
December, capture of Dierecke and 1,500; stroke not of an overwhelming
nature, but let us be thankful for our mercies], which has opened the
road from the Lausitz to Berlin [alas, not in the least], some Haddick
could pay Berlin a visit again! You see, in Tragedy I wish always to
have crime punished.

"There is talk of a great Battle fought the 6th [not a word of truth in
it] between Luc and him of the Consecrated Hat: said to have been very
murderous. I interest myself very much in this Piece" now playing under
the Sun. "Whenever the Austrians have any advantage, Kaunitz says to
Madame de Bentinck [litigant wandering Lady, known to me at Berlin and
elsewhere], 'Write that to our Friend Voltaire.' Whenever Luc has the
least success, he tells me, 'I have battered the oppressors of mankind.
Dear Angel, in these horrors I am the only one that has room to
laugh:--and yet I don't laugh either; owing to the CULS-NOIRS [base
crockery; one's Dinner Plate all vanished [Supra, p. 374.]], to the
Annuities, Lotteries, and to Pondicherry,--for I am always afraid about
that latter!" (Going, that, for certain; going, gone, and your East
Indies along with it!) [_OEuvres de Voltaire,_ lxxviii. 346 ("22d
December, 1759").]

TO PERPETUAL SECRETARY FORMEY (in forwarding a "Letter left with me").
"Health and peace, Monsieur; and be SECRETAIRE ETERNEL. Your King is
always a man unique, astonishing, inimitable. He makes charmin