, left behind (--OEuvres,--lxxv. 220).]--but soon brightened up
again: Courage!

How Voltaire now wanders about for several years, doing his ANNALES,
and other Works; now visiting Lyon City (which is all in GAUDEAMUS
round him, though Cardinal Tencin does decline him as dinner-guest); now
lodging with Dom Calmet in the Abbey of Senones (ultimately in one's
own first-floor, in Colmar near by), digging, in Calmet's Benedictine
Libraries, stuff for his ANNALES;--wandering about (chiefly in Elsass,
latterly on the Swiss Border), till he find rest for the sole of his
foot: [Purchased LES DELICES (The Delights), as he named it, a glorious
Summer Residence, on the Lake, near Geneva (supplemented by a Winter
ditto, MONRION, near Lausanne), "in February, 1755" (--OEuvres,--xvii.
243 n.);--then purchased FERNEY, not far off, "in October, 1758;"
and continued there, still more glorious, for almost twenty years
thenceforth (ib. lxxvii. 398, xxxix. 307: thank the exact "Clog." for
both these Notes).] all this may be known to readers; and we must
say nothing of it. Except only that, next year, in his tent, or hired
lodgings at Colmar, the Angels visited him (Abraham-like, after a sort).
Namely, that one evening (late in October, 1754), a knock came to his
door, "Her Serene Highness of Baireuth wishes to see you, at the Inn
over there!" "Inn, Baireuth, say you? Heavens, what?"--Or, to take it in
the prose form:--

"January 26th, 1753, about eight P.M. [while Voltaire sat desolate in
Francheville's, far away], the Palace at Baireuth,--Margraf with candle
at an open window, and gauze curtains near--had caught fire; inexorably
flamed up, and burnt itself to ashes, it and other fine edifices
adjoining. [Holle, STADT BAYREUTH (Bayreuth, 1833), p. 178.] Wilhelmina
is always very ill in health; they are now rebuilding their Palace:
Margraf has suggested, 'Why not try Montpellier; let us have a winter
there!' On that errand they are (end of October, 1754) got the length
of Colmar; and do the Voltaire miracle in passing. Very charming to the
poor man, in his rustication here.

"'Eight hours in a piece, with the Sister of the King of Prussia" writes
he: think of that, my friends! 'She loaded me with bounties; made me a
most beautiful present. Insisted to see my Niece; would have me go with
them to Montpellier.' [Letters (in--OEuvres,--lxxv. 450, 452), "Colmar,
23d October, &c. 1754."] Other interviews and meetings they had, there
and farther