After the Battle of Fontenoy in 1744, an ode he composed upon that victory brought him once more into favour at Versailles, and for two years he enjoyed the immediate patronage of Madame de Pompadour. He could not, however, control his powers of satire, and in 1746 fell into disgrace at Court, from which he never successfully emerged. He then, in company with Madame du Châtelet, joined the literary _coterie_ of the Duchess de Maine at Sçeaux, and afterwards, still accompanied by his fair friend, paid a visit to the Court of the ex-King Stanislaus, father of the Queen of France, at Luneville. Here Madame du Châtelet fell desperately in love with a handsome young officer, thirteen years her junior, the Marquis de St. Lombert. Voltaire accepted the situation with philosophic calm, saying he wished to change his position as lover for that of a sincere and devoted friend. A year later the Marquise died in child-bed, and a grotesque as well as melancholy scene took place; the three men, her husband, the Marquis du Châtelet, Voltaire, and St. Lombert, all weeping in each other’s arms over her body! Voltaire established himself in Paris: a widowed niece, Mdme. Denis, whom he adopted as his daughter, kept house for him, and remained his companion for the rest of his life. In 1750 Frederick the Great invited the distinguished author to settle at Potsdam as his permanent guest. Voltaire accepted the offer, reaching Berlin in July of the same year. He was received with almost regal honours: a pension of 20,000 livres, the golden key of Great Chamberlain, and the Cross of the Order of Prussia bestowed upon him. All his plays were performed in succession at the theatre of Potsdam. At the King’s private suppers the French poet was privileged to make any remarks he pleased, and not bound to observe any form of Court etiquette. This (to Voltaire) ideal existence lasted two years and six months, during which time he wrote and published at Berlin the _Siècle de Louis XIV._ Voltaire began to take too great an advantage of the licence accorded to him by the Prussian monarch; he presumed to correct Frederick’s French prose, and to make light of his verses. He quarrelled with the Court banker, Hirsch (the direct ancestor of the late great financier Baron Hirsch), about a doubtful monetary speculation, and a lawsuit took place between them. It seems probable that this affair, which has never been satisfactorily cleared up, contributed far more than a literary dispute to the final rupture between King Frederick and his pet philosopher. Voltaire had always shown great financial ability, and had amassed a large fortune, which he continued to increase during the remainder of his career.