lls and their Supper of the gods;
and all the world and his wife goes home again, amid various commentary
from high and low. 'JAMAIS, Never,' murmured one high Gentleman, of the
Impromptu kind, at the Palace Supper-table:--

--'Jamais dans Athene et dans Rome
On n'eut de plus beaux jours, ni de plus digne prix.
J'ai vu le fils de Mars sous les traits de Paris,
Et Venus qui donnait la pomme.'"--

["Never in Athens or Rome were there braver sights or a worthier prize:
I have seen the son of Mars [King Friedrich] with Paris's features, and
Venus [Amelia] crowning the victorious." (--OEuvres de Voltaire,--xviii.
320.)]

And Amphitheatre and Lamps lapse wholly into darkness, and the thing has
finished, for the time being. August 27th, it was repeated by daylight:
if possible, more charming than ever; but not to be spoken of farther,
under penalties. To be mildly forgotten again, every jot and tittle
of it,--except one small insignificant iota, which, by accident, still
makes it remarkable. Namely, that Collini and the Barberinas were
there; and that not only was Voltaire again there, among the Princes and
Princesses; but that Collini saw Voltaire, and gives us transient
sight of him,--thanks to Collini. Thursday, 27th August, 1750, was the
Daylight version of the Carrousel; which Collini, if it were of any
moment, takes to have PRECEDED that of the 40,000 Lamps. Sure enough
Collini was there, with eyes open:--

"Madame de Cocceji [so one may call her, though the known alias is
Barberina] had engaged places; she invited me to come and see this
Festivity. We went;" and very grand it was. "The Palace-Esplanade was
changed" by carpentries and draperies "into a vast Amphitheatre; the
slopes of it furnished with benches for the spectators, and at the four
corners of it and at the bottom, magnificently decorated boxes for the
Court." Vast oval Amphitheatre, the interior arena rectangular, with its
Four Entrances, one for each of the Four Quadrilles. "The assemblage was
numerous and brilliant: all the Court had come from Potsdam to Berlin.

"A little while before the King himself made appearance, there rose
suddenly a murmur of admiration, and I heard all round me, from
everybody, the name 'Voltaire! Voltaire!' Looking down, I saw Voltaire
accordingly; among a group of great lords, who were walking over the
Arena, towards one of the Court Boxes. He wore a modest countenance,
but joy painted itself