Tour to Strasburg, which, according to his complaint in that

Poetic Letter [Doggerel above given], were so heavy."

That is Voltaire's view; grown very corrosive after Twenty Years.

He admits, with all the satire: "I naturally felt myself attached

to him; for he had wit, graces; and moreover he was a King, which

always forms a potent seduction, so weak is human nature.

Usually it is we of the writing sort that flatter Kings: but this

King praised me from head to foot, while the Abbe Desfontaines and