istresses, royal patrons,
or aristocratic friends. He tried residence in Geneva and Lausanne,
but while he found political liberty, he was not accorded by the pious
Swiss the social freedom to which he was accustomed in France. Finally
he purchased a place at Ferney. His home here became the Mecca to
which the literary celebrities of Europe made pilgrimages. At Ferney
he established watch-manufacturing, competing with the Swiss; here
also he built a church, inscribing upon it "_Deo crexit Voltaire_." In
pure mischievousness he entered upon an indecent controversy with the
bishop of the diocese, who was a good though foolish man. He also
managed to quarrel right and left with all sorts of people, while
slowly and imperceptibly old age crept upon him. Much of the noblest
work of his life was done here. It was while at Ferney that he adopted
a young girl of noble but poor family, rescuing her from a convent and
marrying her to the Marquis de Villete. She contributed to making many
of his declining years bright with her presence. His pet name for her
was "Belle et Bonne."

For some of his work done at Ferney he has won the respect and
admiration of mankind. Such were his noble defence of the Calas
family, his successful attack upon the outrages committed upon Sirven
and his family, securing the liberation of Espinasse from the galleys,
the vindication of General Lally, and the brave battle for D'Etalonde
and La Barre, together with many other cases in which his powerful
pen proved its strength in defence of the weak against the oppression
of civil and ecclesiastical tyranny.

This part of his career provides the staple material for his
eulogists, as it is not without genuine value. With the death of Louis
XV., Voltaire evidently expected that he would be invited to return to
Paris, but the government did not give him any encouragement. By the
beginning of 1778 he had finished a tragedy entitled "Irene," and on
February 10th he arrived in Paris after an absence of twenty-eight
years. Though not received very cordially by the ministry, he was
heartily welcomed by the Academy and all the foreign celebrities at
the capital, among them the American minister, Dr. Benjamin Franklin,
to whom he said, "If I were only forty years old I would immediately
go and settle in your happy country." An hour after Franklin left, the
English ambassador called, to whom he made himself equally agreeable.

The prolonged excitement of the contin